Every week, you’ll get insights and actionable steps to help you navigate personal growth and professional success.
We’ve journeyed through vulnerability, values, and trust in our exploration of Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead.” Today, we tackle the final crucial skill: Learning to Rise. The ability to bounce back from setbacks is the crescendo that brings the entire symphony of leadership together…and as someone who’s tasted the dirt at the bottom of the valley, I’m rooting for your bouncebacks to be far higher than you can even imagine.
Brown describes ‘Learning to Rise’ as the ability to get back up after a fall, face hurt in a way that brings more wisdom, and reset faster after disappointments. For city managers, this skill is not just beneficial—it’s essential. In the unpredictable and often harsh world of municipal leadership, setbacks are not a possibility; they’re a certainty.
For a city manager, learning to rise might look like:
What do you want?
Those deep, inner cravings of your heart. Those intense longings of your soul.
Why do you want them?
What are they fulfilling for you, giving to you, providing for you?
Why do you do the things you do?
What is motivating you, driving you, compelling you to act?
At the epicenter of all of your wants and actions are your desires.