Finding Stability Before Speed: Leadership’s Strong Ground
Lately, many leaders feel like they’re running on moving ground.
More change. More tools. More urgency. Less clarity.
Brené Brown’s book Strong Ground arrived at the right moment. It’s not about doing more (as most of us leaders feel like right now). It’s about standing more firmly before you move at all. I moved it right to my top spots on my 2026 reading list.
So if you are interested, let’s grab a coffee and dive right into it.
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| Photo by Jeremy Lee on Unsplash |
Quick summary for those in a hurry
Brené Brown introduces Strong Ground as an analogy from sports: strong ground means drawing power from contact with the floor instead of compensating with (the wrong) muscles.
She applies this idea to leadership.
Strong ground means your strength comes from a solid foundation, not from pushing harder without support.
In organizations, that “ground” actually is made of 5 elements:
- clarity about values
- self-awareness
- emotional stability
- connection
- accountability
Without that foundation, every new strategy or transformation effort becomes fragile.
The tush push and the physics of leadership
An unexpected (and memorable) metaphor in the book is the “Tush Push”. It is a football strategy popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles.
It works because:
- force goes into the ground
- players move together
- physics actually does the heavy lifting
Even physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has praised the move for how cleanly it applies basic physical laws. And the move even slightly moves the earth (even if you wouldn’t really be able to actually measure it).
What does that have to do with leadership? If you’re not grounded, pushing harder won’t help you much.
Teams don’t need more pressure.
They need better contact with what actually matters.
The paradox that changed how I look at my calendar
One of the most practical sections in the book is when Brown talks about overcommitment.
She noticed a paradox in herself:
- When her calendar looked empty, she said yes to everything.
- When the time came, even more things appeared.
The solution for her was simple:
Every commitment goes straight into the calendar.
No “I’ll remember that.”
No mental juggling. Just having a mind like water as David Allen would put it.
Brown even applies this to (very) small things like booking the next haircut while paying for the current one.
This is also where she comes up with an interesting definition with leadership:
Leadership is a combination of plumbing and poetry.
- Plumbing = systems, routines, proven practices
- Poetry = vision, meaning, storytelling
Great leaders do need both.
Negative Capability: the skill we avoid
Brown introduces the concept of Negative Capability. This is the ability to sit with uncertainty, ambiguity, and not-knowing without immediately fixing it.
Such situations are uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.
But this is where good leaders differ from great ones. If you can be in such situations without turning mad you are the strong ground your team needs. It shows and enables:
- emotional maturity
- empathy
- deeper connection
- better decision-making
Strong leaders don’t rush to certainty. They hold the tension long enough for something wiser to emerge.
Think like a scientist, not a preacher
Drawing on Adam Grant’s work (Think Again), Brown describes three mental roles we often fall into:
- Preacher: defending what we already believe
- Prosecutor: attacking opposing views
- Politician: saying whatever gains approval
You should be neither of them. Instead try to be a scientist:
- Test ideas.
- Run experiments.
- And stay curious.
It helps you approach decisions more as experiments and not egotrips. It helps you transition to a learning mindset. And if you as a leader are eager to learn you become instantly more approachable.
If you want to put this to practice, there is one idea from Strong Ground that stayed with me: Be more critical about what you like and more open to the things you don’t like:
- Question the arguments you like 10% more
- Be 10% more open to arguments you dislike
Daring leadership vs. armored leadership
Brown also revisits a core theme from her earlier work but sharpens it here.
- Armored leadership looks strong but avoids vulnerability.
- Daring leadership risks being seen.
She defines daring leadership through four elements:
- No courage without vulnerability
- Self-awareness and self-trust matter
- Courage is contagious
- Leaders must learn how to rise after failure
Showing weakness isn’t the opposite of leadership. It’s the entry point.
Leadership ≠ Management
With insights from Ginny Clarke, Brown makes a clear distinction:
- Management = systems, execution, efficiency
- Leadership = direction, meaning, courage
Simply being a manager doesn’t make you a leader. In practice, we do need both: leaders and managers, but we shouldn’t confuse them as it will create frustration on all sides.
Mission clarity: the 5 Cs
My favourite practical tool in the book is the 5 Cs for strategic thinking and delegation:
- Context: What’s really happening?
- Color: What emotions are in play?
- Connective Tissue: Who and what are affected?
- Cost: What do we give up?
- Consequence: What happens next?
Pocket presence beats executive presence
Brown challenges the popular idea of “Executive Presence”. It’s a concept many leaders are evaluated on.
Instead, she introduces Pocket Presence. It is a football term describing awareness of what’s happening around you even when you can’t see it directly.
Pocket Presence goes deep. It is about:
- sensing the team
- reading the room
- understanding dynamics
- being prepared out of respect, not optics
And yes, this is nothing you just have. In order to create pocket presence you need to engage with your team. Not just professionally, but also on a personal level. Being able to “sense the team” needs trust and empathy and this isn’t built instantly.
Grounded confidence and productive urgency
A concept that also stayed with me is the Brown’s understanding that members within a team operate in different “time zones”. She distinguishes three types:
- fast movers with good results
- steady performers
- deep thinkers who need time but deliver exceptional outcomes
Great leaders don’t demand the same speed from everyone. They match the urgency a certain project needs with the rhythm of the people.
Final thought: between stimulus and response
The book closes by returning to a timeless truth:
Between stimulus and response, there is space.
Strong Ground is about expanding that space: for leaders, teams, and ourselves.
Not to slow progress.
But to make it sustainable.