Today BetterUp®, the human transformation company and inventor of virtual coaching, announced a groundbreaking partnership with Brené Brown, the globally renowned researcher and author. Together, they will launch the Daring Leadership Institute, a first-of-its-kind integration that amplifies Brené Brown’s empirically based, courage-building curriculum with BetterUp’s category-defining human transformation platform. This partnership strengthens BetterUp’s unique platform approach that braids coaching, science and AI-enhanced experiences to best meet the needs of people and drive the performance organizations need.
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Globally renowned researcher and author Brené Brown pictured with BetterUp CEO and Co-founder Alexi Robichaux (Photo: Kirby Stenger)
The workplace is facing an evolutionary moment for leadership as the velocity of change continues to accelerate. Technological advancements including the advent of AI are changing more than how people do their jobs — it’s upending 50+ years of conventional wisdom around leadership. This moment demands courageous leaders with often-overlooked uniquely human skills.
BetterUp’s data reveals that 72% of us aren’t working with the optimism, agency or confidence we need to make the most of this technological inflection point. Even amid a dramatically accelerating pace of change, managers with the right interventions can, and do, develop skills like tenacity, courage and trust. When they do, their teams perform 34% better and are 21% more innovative.
A combined 30+ years of research and insights from BetterUp and Brené Brown show that these uniquely human skills are observable, coachable, and measurable. The Daring Leadership Institute will directly address this rising need with a solution that can scale with integrity.
On establishing the Daring Leadership Institute at BetterUp, Executive Chair Brené Brown explained, “As new technologies, chronic uncertainty, and ever-shifting markets continue to reshape industries and redefine the future of work, we need to develop skill sets, mindsets, toolsets, and systems that support feedback cultures, reward critical and anticipatory thinking, and foster deep collaboration and inclusivity. Additionally, we need to embrace new and uncomfortable ways of working that will feel paradoxical in many ways – like learning how to be both very focused and very agile, how to move with urgency and thoughtfulness, how to lead by excavating the unsaid rather than expending energy working around it. Our new collaboration will allow us to bring these skill and mindset transformations to organizations in measurable and meaningful ways. It’s a game-changer!”
Brown’s empirically based Dare to Lead courage-building curriculum and other comprehensive offerings will be exclusively available to BetterUp’s community of customers, world-class coaches and passionate members through the Human Transformation Platform. Under Brown’s leadership, the Institute will instill bold, transformational leadership through a measurable approach that equip leaders with the skill sets, mindsets, systems and tools they need to ready their performance and that of their people. Effective immediately Brown, as Executive Chair of the Institute, will actively contribute to customer growth through research and advancing organizational development. Brown will join BetterUp’s Science Board bringing her decades of experience in developing brave leaders and courageous cultures to BetterUp’s innovative offering.
“With Brené Brown at the helm of the Daring Leadership Institute, we have the unique opportunity to scale her decades of experience transforming organizations and helping CEOs accomplish audacious goals with integrity and impact,” said Alexi Robichaux, CEO & Co-founder of BetterUp, “Our human-first change model combined with our trusted technology platform enables organizations to personalize the development of their people and teams at unprecedented scales. Partnering with a foremost expert like Brené will transform our customers, enabling them to drive peak performance, embrace emerging technological advancements, and foster courageous cultures that last.”
Brené Brown shared her excitement about joining forces with BetterUp: “Over the past five years, we’ve taken over 120,000 people across 45 countries through our Dare to Lead program. Our evaluation data are clear – this courage-building work has a tremendous impact on individuals, teams, and organizations. Like all leaders, I’ve been working to understand how to meet this once-in-a-lifetime moment of sweeping global change. I started searching for a partner who shares our values and is bravely innovating at the intersection of technology and human transformation. I stopped looking when I found BetterUp! Since meeting Eddie and Alexi a couple of years ago, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know BetterUp and the larger team, and I’ve been blown away. I’m proud that The Daring Leadership Institute at BetterUp is where we’re going to develop and deliver all of my leadership work. I believe with my whole heart that, together, we can develop braver leaders and more courageous cultures around the world. Let’s go!”
New product capabilities will start rolling out in Fall of 2024. For more information about BetterUp and the collaboration with Brené Brown, please visit Betterup.com.
About BetterUp
Founded in 2013, BetterUp® is the human transformation company driving peak performance in individuals and organizations through unparalleled access to coaching, content, community and AI. BetterUp is the inventor of virtual coaching and the largest mental health and coaching startup in the world, with the world’s largest network of over 4,000 Coaches offering support in 64 languages across over 70 countries. Trusted by more than 600 organizations including NASA, Google, Chipotle, Salesforce, Hilton and other leading Fortune 1,000 companies, BetterUp delivers on key impact areas – transformational leadership, resilience and readiness as well as manager effectiveness – all with the vision to inspire people everywhere to live with greater clarity, purpose and passion. BetterUp’s Science Board is composed of leading researchers and luminaries in the fields of positive psychology and human performance including Martin Seligman, Shawn Achor, Quinetta Roberson and Adam Grant who also serves as the Chairman of the BetterUp Center for Purpose & Performance. BetterUp has been recognized by Inc. 5000, Fortune’s Great Places to Work, and PEOPLE Magazine’s Companies that Care. Investors include Wellington Management, ICONIQ Growth, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Threshold Ventures, PLUS Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company, Morningside Group, SV Angel, Freestyle Capital, Crosslink Capital and Tenaya Capital. To learn more, visit www.betterup.com.
About Brené Brown
Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the Graduate College of Social Work. She also holds the position of visiting professor in management at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. Brené has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. She is the author of six #1 New York Times bestsellers and is the host of two award-winning podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead.
Brené’s books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and her titles include Atlas of the Heart, Dare to Lead, Braving the Wilderness, Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection. With Tarana Burke, she co-edited the bestselling anthology You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience.
Brené’s TED talk on the Power of Vulnerability is one of the top five most-viewed TED talks in the world, with over 60 million views. Brené is the first researcher to have a filmed lecture on Netflix, and in March 2022, she launched a new show on HBO Max that focuses on her latest book, Atlas of the Heart.
Brené spends most of her time working in organizations around the world, helping develop braver leaders and more courageous cultures.
About Dare to Lead
Dare to Lead is an empirically based program that focuses on developing the four skill sets of courage: Living Into Our Values, Rumbling with Vulnerability, Braving Trust and Learning to Rise. In addition to skills building, the program develops mindsets that support innovation, trust, and agility, and harnesses tools that allow participants to embed and integrate what they’re learning into everyday challenges and situations in tactical, actionable ways. Dare to Lead has a long history of helping organizations build system sets that deliver against daring goals. Over the past seven years, over 113,000 participants in 44 countries have completed the program, from tech disruptors, professional athletes, and underwater engineers, to artists, global peacemakers, and NASA Astronauts.
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