Leading Above the Line (or at least trying to)

“I’m just now realizing how much I operate in fear.” 

Her voice filled with a sense of defeat.  For a moment, the air between us felt heavier, charged with disappointment. She thought this realization meant she was behind, that she’d somehow failed. 

But in my body, I felt the opposite — a quiet expansion, a sense that we’d just crossed a threshold. 
Awareness, after all, is not regression. It’s revelation. 

In that moment I'm witnessing my client rise above the line. 

What it means to lead above (or below) the line 

In Brené Brown’s new book Solid Ground , she shares a deceptively simple model (which builds on the work of Robert Kiyosaki, Carolyn Taylor, and The Conscious Leadership Group):

There’s a line (that’s fear) 
Below it- we're acting from fear unknowingly. Above it- we feel and acknowledge fear but not acting from it unknowingly.  

Below the line, fear is driving the bus. We grip the wheel with white knuckles, believing control equals safety — unaware that fear is deciding our route. 
Above the line, we still feel fear, but we notice it. We take a breath. We move fear back to the passenger seat and remember we have a choice in how we respond. 

The hidden cost of leading from fear 

For my client, operating below the line meant over-functioning as a manager and doer, when in fact she’s the leader of the organization. 
She played the rescuer— stepping in  to fix, to ensure everything ran smoothly. 

But rescuers often pay the price of exhaustion and resentment. 
And the team surrounding that pay too — in stagnation and learned dependency. 

Together, we explored what it might look like for her to lead as a coach instead of a rescuer. What systems could hold her team accountable so she could hold the vision? What structures could carry the weight that she’s been holding in her own two hands? 

The biology beneath the behavior 

Leading below the line isn’t a personal flaw — it’s biology. 
When uncertainty or conflict hits, our fear brain activates like an ancient alarm system. 
This survival wiring once kept our ancestors alive and still whispers to us today: Be careful. Stay small. Stay safe. 

In the Positive Intelligence® for Leadership course I’m  teaching, we’ve been exploring these patterns in depth. 
Participants have spent the past two weeks learning to recognize the unique characters fear sends to drive the bus — the Controller, the Pleaser, the Avoider. 
They’re practicing the radical act of naming their fear out loud. 

And when they do, many feel the same disheartening drop my client felt: Am I failing? Am I backsliding? 
But this awareness is not evidence of weakness — it’s proof of growth. 

Awareness is your ascent

Every time we see fear clearly, we loosen its grip. 
Every time we pause, breathe, and return to the present moment, we reclaim the wheel. 

This is what it means to rise above the line — 
not to erase fear, but to see it, name it, and choose leadership anyway. 

So if you notice fear in your own leadership today, take heart. 
That awareness itself is your ascent. 

Stay Wild,
Meghan

P.S. Rise above the line and join the next cohort of social impact leaders for Positive Intelligence for Leadership!  Decrease the amount of time fear is driving the bus and practice the mental muscles for clarity, confidence, and creativity.