6.2 Case StudyThe Strength to Stand Out

Sociologist Dr. Bren Brown is a highly recognized thought leader, acclaimed best-selling author, teacher, researcher, and sought-after speaker who has built a small empire and a very large following around the study of such difficult topics as shame, vulnerability, courage, and empathy.

A Texan who prefers "shit kickers" (cowboy boots), jeans, and clogs to business attire, Bren is a professor of sociology at the University of Houston. She has authored five number-one New York Times best-selling books. Her TED Talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," is one of the top five most-accessed TED Talks ever with more than 39 million views. In 2019, she hosted her first Netflix special, Bren Brown: The Call to Courage (Brown, 2019a).

Though Bren is more likely to bill herself as simply a "research professor," she is also an entrepreneur, CEO, mother, and wife. She founded The Daring Way, a training and certification program for helping professionals who want to facilitate her work on vulnerability, courage, shame, and empathy in their practices.

Bren's path to where she is today began when she was a child. Cassandra Bren Brown's family moved several timesfrom Houston to New Orleans to Houston to Washington, DC, and back to Houston. Fitting in and feeling a sense of belonging was not easy for her. After moving to New Orleans, Brown's parents changed neighborhoods and enrolled her in a Catholic school despite their own Episcopal faith. Later, when Bren was a teenager, her family returned to Houston, and she was once again the new kid in school. Her efforts to fit in fell short, and that feeling of belonging remained elusive. Deepening Bren's feelings of separateness was the disintegration of her parents' marriage during her high school years, shaking the only real sense of belonging she had.

Despite this, Bren was a plucky, curious young girl who grew to be tenacious and outspoken. Reflecting back, she credits these formative years in helping shape her later success.

"I owed my career to not belonging. First as a child, then as a teenager. I found my primary coping mechanism for not belonging in studying people. I was a seeker of pattern and connection. I knew if I could recognize patterns in people's behaviors and connect those patterns to what people were feeling and doing, I could find my way," she said. "I used my pattern recognition skills to anticipate what people wanted, what they thought, or what they were doing. I learned how to say the right thing or show up the right way. I became an expert fitter-in, a chameleon" (Brown, 2017, p. 16).

The years after high school were unsettled years of rebellion for Bren; she hitchhiked across Europe, bartended, and waitressedgaining a variety of life experiences and admittedly engaging in an array of self-destructive behaviors. After having dropped out of college earlier, she graduated at 29 at the top of her class with a bachelor's degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin and immediately entered graduate school at the University of Houston where she completed both a master's and doctoral program.

Through her studies, Bren found a passion for social work and discovered the concept of qualitative research. She became interested in and trained in a methodology known as grounded theory, which starts with a topic (rather than a theory) from which, through the process of collecting and analyzing data based on discussions with the study participants, patterns and theories emerge. The grounded theory model fit Bren's gift for storytelling and her ability to connect patterns in her subjects through the listening and observation skills she developed as coping mechanisms in her teens. "I fell in love with the richness and depth of qualitative research," she said. "Storytelling is my DNA, and I couldn't resist the idea of research as story-catching. Stories are data with a soul and no methodology honors that more than grounded theory" (Brown, 2019b).

Unfortunately, the grounded theory model is a departure from traditional academic research, which tends to place higher value on the cleaner, more measurable outcomes of quantitative research. Despite being discouraged by other academics and counseled to not use the methodology for her doctoral dissertation, Bren pushed forward. And like the research method she espouses, Bren allowed the stories emerging from the data to shape her explorations, and she began to study the emotion of shame.

"I didn't sign on to study shameone of the most (if not the most) complex and multifaceted emotions that we experience. A topic that not only took me six years to understand, but an emotion that is so powerful that the mere mention of the word 'shame' triggers discomfort and avoidance in people," she said. "I innocently started with an interest in learning more about the anatomy of connection . . . Because the research participants had the courage to share their stories, experiences, and wisdom, I forged a path that defined my career and my life" (Brown, 2019b).

As with her choice of research methodology, Bren was discouraged from studying shame as a topic. But she prevailed, trusting her instincts and the path the data opened to her. Her research would soon extend to other, equally difficult emotions: vulnerability, courage, and belonging. She was willing to study areas that were often difficult to define, very personal, and sometimes painful, not only for her study subjects, but often for herself.

After getting a PhD, Bren accepted a professorship with the University of Houston, teaching and continuing her research. She was often asked by her shame study participants to share her findings. In academia, research findings are usually released as peer-reviewed articles in academic journals. Bren wanted to make her work more widely available and decided to publish it in a more mainstream format. Knowing it would be difficult to balance this ambition with her academic career, she tendered her resignation to the university. When the dean of her department was unwilling to accept Bren's resignation, she then proposed working part-timewhich also was rejected as there was no precedent at the university for that type of arrangement. Bren stood firm, ultimately winning the blessing of the dean, the provost, and the university's president. She borrowed money to self-publish her first book, Women and Shame: Reaching Out, Speaking Truths and Building Connection, in 2004. The book sold well enough that it attracted a well-known publisher who republished it, launching Bren's career as an author.

Bren sums up her journey in her 2017 book Braving the Wilderness: "Was living lockstep really how I wanted to spend my life? No. When I was told I couldn't do a qualitative dissertation, I did it anyway. When they tried to convince me not to study shame, I did it anyway. When they told me I couldn't be a professor and write books that people might actually want to read, I did it anyway" (Brown, 2017, p. 18).

Bren's publishing success created speaking opportunities where her engaging, self-reflective personality and willingness to share her own stories in a brutally (yet warmly) honest way make her highly relatable to others. With her Texas-style no-nonsense wit, she weaves humor and lightness with topics most people find uncomfortable. She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and facilitator to the tune of $100,000 per engagement. Her work translates to many different fields and encompasses a wide swath of clients including C-suite executives, educators, engineers, mental health professionals, and parents. Time magazine even called Bren "one of the leading brainiacs on feelings," adding that "what Brown offers that others don't is a nerd's capacity for qualitative data and grounded theory coupled with enough warmth and humor that she moves people rather than merely training them" (Luscombe, 2018).

As her success has grown, Bren has maintained the down-to-earth authenticity of a woman who knows who she is and presents herself exactly as she iscuss words and all. She believes strongly in her work and has the willingness and courage to practice it in everyday living, even when it is uncomfortable and requires her to look closely at her own behaviors and responses. Bren has also bumped up against many who challenge her and attempt to corral her into "fitting in" with their ideals of who she should be and what she should discuss. She has been asked by event leaders to dress differently or pare back her discussions to suit the perspective of their audience. She's had business groups ask her not to bring up "faith" and religious groups concerned that she might use cuss words and offend the audience. She opts, instead, to remain true to who she is.

"I can't go on that stage and talk about authenticity and courage when I don't feel authentic or brave. I physically can't do it," she said. "I'm not here so my business-self can talk to their business-selves. I'm here to talk from my heart to their hearts. This is who I am" (Brown, 2017, p. 24).

Exercises/Questions

This is who I am" (Brown, 2017, p. 24).

Exercises/Questions

Bren Brown has achieved considerable success and a loyal following by playing to her own strengths. See Bren in action and acquaint yourself further with her by viewing her two TED Talks:

• The Power of Vulnerability(www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability)
• Listening to Shame(www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame)

1. Based on the case study narrative and what you learned about Bren and her work from the TED Talk videos:
   1. Based on the strengths listed inTable 6.1, select five strengths that you think are descriptive of Bren Brown. Explain your answer.
   2. Based on your answer to the previous question, which of the four domains of leadership strengths found inTable 6.2(executing, influencing, relationship building, or strategic thinking) do you think best apply to Bren? Which domain do you believe is her strongest? Explain.
2. Based on the case study narrative and what you learned about Bren and her work from the TED Talk videos:

1. Which of the VIA character strengths (Table 6.3) would you attribute to Bren Brown?

2. On a scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high), how would you rate Bren in each classification of the VIA (Table 6.3)? Explain your ratings.