Transcend Fear

If you want to be a great leader. This book is for you.

Transcend Fear is a roadmap to be a great leader in the face of a crisis.

Written by the Surgeon General of Florida, Dr Joseph Ladapo.  

Dr Ladapo earned an MD and PHD in Health Policy from Harvard University. His studies also included a degree in Decision Science. He served as a professor of medicine at New York University before being tenured at UCLA. In 2021 he was then invited by the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to be Florida’s Surgeon General.

This is his personal account of how he dealt with the COVID pandemic in Florida. His approach was very different to the rest of the United States of America, that was gripped by fear and the politicisation of the pandemic.

He recommends two strategies to being a good leader.

1. Do the inner work – understand, be conscious of and work on clearing your emotional biases and triggers.
2. Study Decision Science – a mathematical approach to analysing decisions both large and small, that incorporates information about risks, trade-offs, values and preferences. This transparently outlines the variables that have been considered in the decision-making process and the corresponding value of the benefits of those decisions. And because it is a mathematical approach it is not impacted by emotional biases, preferences or beliefs.

These two strategies help you as a leader in crisis situations to put ‘fear’ to the side and consider the way forward in a conscious, focussed and rational way.

It got me thinking about my triggers.

I am the youngest of six and had four older brothers who made it a sport to scare me. So, the strategies I learned from a young age, were in the face of fear, to have a poker face (I didn’t want to give my brothers any satisfaction), and to think strategically (they were bigger and stronger so how could I use my smarts to get revenge). I had to put fear to the side, so I could survive.  So, one of my triggers, what really gets my back up, is people trying to scare me to do something – coercion, extortion. NO WAY!

I believe this emotional trigger for me, has been positive. But not all are. They can have you scrambling irrationally, emotionally disabled when others around you are not affected at all. Triggers are personal and as Dr Ladapo says in his book, there’s nothing like a crisis to push your buttons and trigger your preprogrammed emotional response. A response that can feel like it’s life or death, for you.

What are your triggers? Are you aware of them? Can you control them and put them to the side in a crisis so you can lead in a rational, focussed and mindful way?

A great leader is one who prioritises their inner work, so they can be their most effective in their external environment.

X Cath

Conscious Business

Integrate your truth

Cath Sutherland is the Director of Conscious Business – helping businesses to understand who they are, so they can do business better. Cath facilitates teams and leaders through her unique Creating Brand Energy process to develop, through collective consensus, their unique Conscious Business Blueprint – a clear, multi-level guide to manage, direct and develop relationships, operations, and product delivery. Cath can be reached at cath@consciousbusiness.net.au