Dare to Lead at Lumen aims to strengthen IT/technology company Lumen’s leadership culture to drive business performance and increase employee engagement and trust in leadership. The program is rooted in research by author, research professor, and storyteller Dr. Brené Brown, who studies human connection and focuses on courage, shame, vulnerability, and empathy.
Program Details
Lumen has taken a multi-year approach to the program, working closely with Dr. Brown and her team on each year’s rollout. Tailored to Lumen’s context, the curriculum focuses on four skill areas:
- Values
- Vulnerability
- Trust
- Rising Strong (resilience)
All employees were offered the opportunity to participate in the program, but leaders were required to do so. To start, Dr. Brown’s “Dare to Lead” book and workbook were distributed to participants. Then the program used a blended learning approach, starting with a voluntary book club phase, followed by virtual instructor-led training (vILT) workshops and peer discussions. It evolved in 2025 into a self-paced digital format on the BetterUp Dare to Lead platform, which allows a global, dispersed workforce continuous access to the program at scale.
Up to six months after the training, participants engaged in peer coaching circles and used a Dare to Lead Reinforcement Toolkit. Those who completed the training also received refreshed access to six online modules in second quarter 2025.
The program has been woven into Lumen’s leadership development ecosystem, with Dare to Lead principles embedded into daily workflows and the company’s Lumen 8 culture.
Results
Six months post-training, an independent 360° feedback survey showed 78 percent of leaders improved in key courage behaviors. Managers’ “open communication” scores improved by 30 percent. These changes were externally validated by BetterUp’s Dare to Lead assessment data, showing an overall increase in “courageous leadership” index scores company-wide.
The program also positively impacted organizational performance. Employee engagement scores increased by 2 percent, and voluntary attrition among people leaders dropped by 8 percent. Sales teams led by trained managers exceeded fourth-quarter sales targets by 7 percent.
