Dominique Browning on Leading with Hope and Courage

Conversations with Courageous Leaders

While the news might make it appear otherwise, countless good people are leading with courage, integrity, and compassion in these uncertain times. Responding to complex challenges—from climate change to social division—they exemplify what courageous, mission-driven leadership looks like.

This month, in my new series Conversations with Courageous Leaders, I speak with Dominique Browning, Director and Co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, about hope, integrity, and the power of “mobilizing love” in the fight for clean air.

From Despair to Action

Browning was an author and editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s House & Garden before she realized she had something to contribute to climate action.

View the conversation on YouTube

Today, she is the Director and Co-Founder of Moms Clean Air Force, a community of 1.5 million parents united to protect children’s health from climate change and other air pollution. She is also Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund.

A warm, thoughtful leader, she shared her insights about the inherent value of dedication to mission-driven work in collaboration with others. We also discussed the importance of talking about courageous leadership — and even ordinary heroism in today’s extraordinary times. 

When we spoke, Browning had recently hosted her elementary school-aged grandson for a ten-day “camp” at her home. Over that time, she came to two clear points of conviction. One was that she likely would not see the climate crisis solved in her lifetime. The other was that she would do everything she could while here.

In holding both ideas, Browning illustrates a capacity key to success for any mission-driven leader: seeing the big picture and committing to doing what one can, however incomplete that might be. 

Mobilizing Love in the Fight for Clean Air

In her words: “I think about our tiny little band at Mom's Clean Air Force—we’re at 40 people, 20 people full-time now— and it's nothing compared to what we're fighting,” she says. “But it’s also not nothing. In fact, it’s everything.”

In my decades of research into how ordinary people rise to extraordinary challenges, I have repeatedly heard neuroscientists and other experts speak about the necessity of approaching the challenges of our day with humility.

As Scott A. Huettel, a Duke University professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, once told me: We are not even wired to comprehend complex global problems such as climate change. We need to bring them down to size and, as Browning says, do what we can.

But, Browning adds, experience has also taught her that we can do more than we ever imagined.

“I used to talk a lot about starting a group of moms to change the conversation from polar bears to people. Everybody thought that was ridiculous at the time—that it didn’t sound serious, just emotional,” says Browning. “Now, here we are, and everybody’s talking about people and the impacts of climate change in very real everyday words.” 

For her, it’s been about helping more people understand what is at stake—and “mobilizing love.”  

This brought us to how her journey has affected her.

Hope as the Antidote to Despair

Like many parents and grandparents—if not most people—Browning says she had long worried about climate change, even felt despairing about it.

But that changed when she committed to do something.

“Just deciding, ‘OK, fine. I'm going to create a way [to do something] made me feel at least I was channeling my energy in a helpful way,” she says.

In short, the work became the antidote to despair, and the camaraderie of teamwork has kept her afloat and motivated.

“I’m not necessarily a hopeful or an optimistic person,” Browning explains. “But I choose to be hopeful, and I choose to be optimistic and not depressed because that is the only way to keep going.”

This brought us, finally, to the value of having a conversation about acting with courage and even ordinary heroism in extraordinary times.

Why Talking About Courage Matters

“I think it's incredibly useful to have the conversation,” Browning says, “because it shows us we're not alone. 

“It also helps fight against the tendency to say, Oh, that was nothing. Actually, no, it was something.” 

And when you can acknowledge that, we agreed, you are stronger.

This essay first appeared in my Substack newsletter, Savor the World: Reigniting Our Capacity to Save It. Subscribe here.

How to Lead (and Live) with Courage and Compassion

Leading with courage and compassion may sound like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to be seen as brave and kind? Yet truly courageous leadership—whether at work, in our communities, or at home—is harder than it looks.

In this essay, we’ll explore what gets in the way of courageous, compassionate leadership and how understanding the six types of courage can help each of us strengthen our capacity to lead and live with integrity in uncertain times.

For people in leadership positions—or who aspire to have a positive influence in their corner of the world—leading with courage and compassion is critical.

Without it, there is little hope of tackling real-world challenges, whether in mission-driven organizations, purpose-driven corporations, or well-meaning communities, schools, and families. With it? Well, it’s a game-changer. 

Yet, are most of us as courageous and compassionate as we could be? 

Odds are: Not by a long shot. 

We are, after all, subject to the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias that shows that people with limited competence in a particular domain tend to overestimate their abilities. 

The same is true, in particular, for how we tend to imagine our capacity for courage. 

What Gets in the Way

This is why anyone who wants to lead with courage and compassion in today’s uncertain world needs to understand what gets in the way. 

One clear obstacle is a narrow view of what leading with courage looks like. 

For example, who comes to mind if you picture a courageous person—or perhaps a person in a courageous profession? 

For many, it’s a firefighter entering a burning building, a man jumping onto subway tracks to save someone, or perhaps a now famous pilot who landed a plane on the Hudson River when the plane’s engines failed.

In other words, we often think of courage in physical terms—some act of physical daring taken to help another. 

But physical courage is only one of many types of courage. 

Six Types of Courage 

For example, Dr. Lisa Dungate and award-winning author Jennifer Armstrong have identified six types of courage: 

1. Physical courage

2. Emotional courage 

3. Intellectual courage

4. Social courage

5. Moral courage

6. Spiritual courage

(Psychotherapist Dragna Djukic summarizes them well here.)

Like most things, these different forms of courage are not isolated from each other. 

For example, when my youngest son worked as a wildland firefighter this summer, it took more than physical courage. Similarly, when my oldest son left the country to serve in the Peace Corps last year, it took more than a will to expand his horizons through intellectual courage. 

From Understanding to Action 

But thinking about these six expressions of courage is helpful because it helps us recognize the great variety of ways to develop the courage to lead. 

They also can help us find a place to start, as followers of Gallup StrengthFinders might suggest. Does morality motivate you? Find your courage there. Are you intellectually courageous? Use that. You get the picture. 

Six ways in. One straightforward hack for embracing the expansiveness of courage. 

It’s like looking at life through a kaleidoscope to see how much more is possible. 

This essay first appeared in my Substack newsletter, Savor the World: Reigniting Our Capacity to Save It. Subscribe here.