Brené Brown says the key to surviving AI is to reject Jack Welch’s advice and embrace humanity. The problem is that humans “can’t stand each other”

“It’s extraordinarily difficult to be brave right now for so many different reasons,” Brown said. “Politics is one of them, but it (also) radically changes markets. A workforce, I mean, I’m going to tell you right now, people are not well. If you’re leading people, you probably know that people are not well.”

People are neurologically programmed for certainty, not high levels of stress, fear and uncertainty, Brown said. Successful leadership at work today requires self-awareness, nervous system management, metacognition (or thinking about how we think), and the ability to slow down decision making to stay aligned with mission and values.

Brown said that while he is optimistic about technology, there are still many skills that are deeply human and cannot be replicated with AI, but we are not doing a very good job as humans right now.

Still, “right now we suck at being deeply human,” Brown said. “We can’t stand each other.”

And Brown said we’re not good at them for a “very serious reason”: We’re too in tune with Jack Welch’s leadership principles. The late former chairman and CEO of General Electric taught that human qualities are handicaps to performance. Brown argued that this advice, which was adopted by many Fortune 500 companies, is no longer valid in today’s complex and uncertain world.

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The rigid, tenacious leadership style that worked during the Welch era does not fit the needs of modern leadership, especially for younger generations who value vulnerability, authenticity, and emotional intelligence.

These traits are often missing in a Welch-style leadership model. Instead, Welch advocated for a “vitality curve” that ranks employees into the top 20%, middle 70%, and bottom 10%, with the bottom group eliminated annually. Critics like Brown argue that this “sort and throw” approach fosters fear, undermines the authenticity of collaboration, and has demonstrated limited effectiveness on long-term performance and culture.

“Fear has a short shelf life. You can’t sustain fear for long periods of time,” Brown said. “This is not how our biology works. If we are afraid, one of two things will happen: we will become desensitized to it or we will hypernormalize the feeling. There has to be a periodic reminder of the capacity for cruelty to maintain power over (other people).”

Brown is a best-selling author, renowned researcher and teacher who rose to global prominence thanks to her 2010 TEDx talk, “The Power of Vulnerability,” which remains one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time. Her work focuses on vulnerability, shame, empathy, and courageous leadership, topics she has studied for more than two decades.

She is the author of six #1 New York Times bestsellers, including The gifts of imperfection, daring a lot and daring to leadeach of which sells millions of copies worldwide. Brown has also hosted two award-winning podcasts, Unlocking us and Dare to leadwhich consistently rank among the most popular leadership and self-help programs. His work has also inspired popular Netflix documentaries. The call to courage and Atlas of the heart. This year, his new book. Solid Ground: Lessons in Bold Leadership, Tenacity, Paradox, and Wisdom of the Human Spirit was published. This year she has also been interviewed by voice, The New York Times, NPR, and Democracy now!

She is also a research professor at the University of Houston, where she holds the Huffington Foundation Chair in the Graduate School of Social Work, and is a professor of practice in management at the top-ranked McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. The central message of her research is that vulnerability is essential for courage, creativity, and meaningful connection, and confronting uncomfortable feelings is necessary for developing resilience and authentic leadership.