From tariffs and politics to AI, all manner of uncertainty is affecting the workplace.
HR pros preparing to navigate today’s myriad uncertainties may want to consider exercising their core (metaphorically). That’s according to Brené Brown, the bestselling author and researcher.
Weak cores. Brown said she came to this conclusion following a pickleball injury. During the Workday Rising conference in San Francisco last week (on the eve of her latest book release, Strong Ground), she told the crowd her trainer said her body had “no core, no lats, no glutes, no stomach,” leading her to overuse secondary muscles when playing the sport.
As she worked with her trainer to strengthen her core muscles and prevent future injury, she realized: “This is the work I do in organizations. Organizations have no core. They’re using inefficient muscle groups to do stuff, because they’ve got no glutes.”
Organizations, Brown said, are looking for “strong ground” to find stability and build their core. But finding that ground requires a new approach. Leaders will need to practice self-awareness, and embrace vulnerability, accountability, mindfulness, and systems thinking.
Paradoxical thinking. Another skill that Brown said leaders should embrace, especially with the advent of AI, is paradoxical thinking.
Humans aren’t “neurobiologically hardwired” for complexity and the tension it can create, Brown said. In the case of AI, multiple paradoxes exist, including a rapidly accelerating pace of technological changes while the need for human connection grows stronger. Many feel like they must choose a side between embracing AI, or disavowing it, according to Brown.
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“We have to be able to learn to straddle the fact that, if you can hold on to the conflict long enough, something innovative and new will emerge,” she said. “If you give in and pick a side. I don’t think you’re going to win moving forward. I don’t think your team’s going to win, I don’t think you’re going to win. I don’t think organizations are going to win.”
However, she said, workplaces have seemingly also lost that understanding of what it means to be human.
“I’m going to be really honest and controversial, with the introduction of Welchian leadership, this kind of rank and game, ‘Everything that makes you human makes you a liability at work,’ that has set us back,’” Brown said, referencing Jack Welch, the longtime General Electric CEO whose controversial management practices have received a posthumous reexamination in recent years. Organizations and leaders must embrace those human traits—connection, deep thinking, collaboration, empathy—as they also embrace AI.
“We have to return to that human wisdom and invest in the rekilling and upskilling of those things that are uniquely asked, in order to partner with AI,” Brown said.