Life Sized Voices Featuring Shawn Frederick
Life Sized Publishing · October 13, 2026
Hey, Areej here!
What does leadership look like when everything changes at once?
For Shawn Frederick, the answer came during one of the most uncertain periods in recent history.
In 2019, Shawn unexpectedly stepped into an interim leadership role after two senior leaders resigned. Months later, his organization discovered a nearly $2 million budget deficit. Then, in January 2020, he received a call that changed everything: someone in his county had become the first known case of COVID-19 in the nation.
That experience became the foundation for Resilience in Motion: Leadership from Crisis, Courage, and Collective Strength, written by Shawn Frederick alongside Pam Aguilar, Sara Centanni, Katie Curtis, Ragina Gray, and Therese Quinn.
But this is not a story about one leader surviving a crisis.
It is about what happens when an entire team learns, adapts, and grows stronger together.
5 Reasons You Should Read This Book
1. It Shows What Leadership Looks Like Under Pressure
The book takes readers inside the real experiences of leaders working through leadership changes, organizational challenges, funding pressures, and an unprecedented public health crisis.
2. It Proves You Do Not Have to Have All the Answers
One of the book’s central ideas is adaptability. Strong leaders are not necessarily the ones who know exactly what to do next. They are the ones who can find steady ground, adjust their approach, and help others do the same.
3. It Puts Self-Awareness First
Before leaders can effectively guide others, they need to understand themselves. The book explores awareness of thoughts, emotions, habits, triggers, strengths, and weaknesses as the foundation for making better decisions under pressure.
4. It Shows Why Strong Teams Matter
The authors emphasize that leadership is not a solo effort. Trust, communication, psychological safety, shared purpose, and sustainable workloads help teams navigate difficult periods without simply pushing themselves toward burnout.
5. It Turns Crisis Into a Learning Opportunity
The book does not suggest that effective leaders avoid difficult experiences. Instead, it explores how reflection, continuous learning, and adaptation can help leaders become better prepared for whatever comes next.
About the Book
Resilience in Motion tells the collective story of a public health leadership team navigating an extraordinary four-year period marked by leadership transitions, reorganization, funding challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rather than focusing on a single person’s journey, the book brings together perspectives from program coordinators, managers, directors, and executives.
Together, they explore six principles of resilient leadership:
Self-Awareness, Adaptability, Emotional Intelligence, Vision and Decision-Making, Building Resilient Teams, and Continuous Learning.
The result is part leadership guide, part collection of real experiences, and part reflection on what it takes to lead people through uncertainty.
This is not about being unaffected by adversity.
It is about learning how to lead when adversity arrives
The Life Sized Perspective
At Life Sized Publishing, we believe the most powerful leadership lessons often come from people who have lived through the moments they write about.
Shawn and his coauthors experienced uncertainty firsthand. They had to make difficult decisions, communicate through fear, support their teams, and continue moving forward when there was no clear playbook.
Their story reminds us that leadership is not simply about having authority.
It is about creating the capacity to keep yourself and your people moving forward when circumstances become difficult.
That is why we are proud to bring Resilience in Motion into the world.
Regards, Areej
What is the hardest leadership lesson you have learned during a crisis?
Reply and share your perspective; I’d love to read it.
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