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Daring Greatly
A book that treats vulnerability as courage, at home and at work
Why it’s worth your time
Asking for help, admitting you don't know, or showing work before it's ready can feel risky at work, and there are reasons it does. Brené Brown, a social work researcher at the University of Houston, argues from years of research that being vulnerable takes courage, and that it's where belonging and creativity begin.
How to be more open at work without oversharing
The book · About 6 hours of reading · Buy or borrow
How to get it
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- Start with what she writes about work.
If you're reading for your job, look for where she applies the idea to work and leadership, then read the rest with your own work in mind.
- Share one unfinished thing.
Pick a draft, plan or idea you'd normally polish first. Send it to one colleague you trust and ask what advice they'd give you before you take it further.
Good moments for this: before you share a first draftafter a mistake that stungwhen you're new to leading a team
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Someone new, junior, or already judged more harshly may pay more for the same admission than a senior leader would. Choose the person and the moment with care.
What might make this harder
Treat that as information about that person or that room. Try again with someone else, on something smaller.
Questions people ask
What is Daring Greatly about?
Vulnerability. Brené Brown argues it's a measure of courage rather than weakness, and applies the idea to relationships, parenting, work and leadership.
Where does the title Daring Greatly come from?
From a passage by Theodore Roosevelt, quoted in the book's description, about the credit belonging to the person in the arena who tries, even if they fail.
Is Daring Greatly useful at work?
It can be, especially for speaking up, asking for help and leading a team, though you'll do some translating to your own job.
What it says, and how it holds up
Saying I don't know in a meeting, owning a miss, showing a draft before it's polished: small, daily moments that can make you brace. Daring Greatly, published in 2012, is Brené Brown's case that these moments of uncertainty and exposure are where courage shows, rather than signs of weakness. Her publisher describes the argument as built on twelve years of her research.
The book's description sets that argument against a world where never enough is the norm and feeling afraid has become routine. At work, that can look like polishing a draft long past the point of usefulness, or staying quiet in a meeting where you had something to add. Publishers Weekly reviewed it.
Her TEDx talk, The power of vulnerability, given at TEDxHouston in 2010, is a free way to hear her before deciding on the book. Her research, as a 2018 profile in the University of Texas alumni magazine describes it, was collected from thousands of stories. That's where the book's pull tends to come from, in naming what exposure feels like; whether a given move works in your own workplace is something to test small first. One limit worth keeping in mind: being open about your work is different from disclosing what's going on in your life. For that, you decide what to share, and a short line that something's going on at home can be enough.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.