Taming the Sabertooth

About Taming the Sabertooth

The sabertooth has evolved. Unfortunately, our response to it hasn’t. Until now. Throughout human history, we have had to deal with physical threats in our environment. When a hungry saber-toothed cat saw us as a delicious snack, we had a split second to decide whether to fight an opponent we stood no chance of defending against, run in the opposite direction, or hide behind a rock attempting to be invisible.

This is the fight-flight-freeze response hardwired into our brains that is activated in response to any perceived threat. At a time when there is significant anxiety both at home and in the workplace, it is critical for us to understand how our bodies react to stress, why stress is a necessary element of our lives, and how we can better cope with it to become better leaders.

In Taming the Sabertooth: Resilient Leadership in a Stressful World, we are reminded that while we cannot necessarily change our environment, we do have the power to shift our response to that environment by building resilience. Hiding behind a rock is not an option; to thrive in work and life, you have to tame the sabertooth. Today, the battle lines are drawn.