Above The Line

“The line is fear. When we’re above the line, we feel fear and we acknowledge it, and we’re not unknowingly acting from it. We’re feeling it and able to maintain the wheel. We’re driving with awareness.” ~ Brene Brown 

In her work providing leadership development and leadership tools, Brene Brown has shared a tool that has been impactful in her life at work and also her life outside of work. She calls it the Above/Below the Line Practice and attributes it to her own coach. (When Brene speaks to the practice in her book Strong Ground, she traces the ideas' origins to author Robert Kiyosaki as well as work done by The Conscious Leadership Group.)

As Brene tells it, when we are below the line “we’re acting from fear and our behaviors are mostly outside our awareness. Fear is driving.” Above the line we fulfill such roles as creator, challenger and coach (David Emerald’s 2005 Empowerment Dynamic). Below the line we fall into roles of victim, villain or rescuer (Stephen Karpman’s 1968 model of The Drama Triangle).

It’s important in all of our lives but maybe more so in our roles as leaders to be aware of when we are ‘below the line’. Some of the cues that we are below the line is becoming attuned to what looks and sounds like fear for us - for some (Brene Brown) it may show up as anger. [Think of the ‘anger’ a parent may express when a child runs into the street - at its very core, it is fear.] 

When we are below the line it may sound like this: Hero (I’ll do it myself), Victim (No one understands) or Villain (Someone needs to take the blame for this!). When we are acting from above the line it may sound like this: Challenger (How do we fix this?), Coach (We should look for patterns) or Creator (We need to build systems that support people we trust in doing good work).

This is a courageous PRACTICE and it takes time and awareness and being willing to ‘name it’. Name the fear. Name how it is showing up. Then step back into the more productive, intentional roles of leading above the line. 

“Courage can be learned if we’re willing to put down our armor and pick up the shared language, tools, and skills we need for rumbling with vulnerability, living into our values, braving trust, and learning to rise.” ~ Brene Brown