August 5, 2026 Salus Health Care Forum

The other person was Lincoln, who I think was more on the sorrowful side. He was quite famous for being locked up by his friends so he wouldn’t commit suicide during a period where he had a breakup with a woman. He clearly had a very painful, mournful life, lots of mental illness in his wife. His children, pretty much except for one son, all died before he did. Lincoln showed a humorful or humorous fulfillment of that kind of melancholic wisdom coupled with his self-restraint that allowed him to go on to be a co-regulator of a large swath of very marginalized people. I mentioned co-regulation because that’s one of the transcendent skills of mastery that will bring us towards where Walt is going to take us.

t of us are sensing intuitively that there is so much destructive disruption going on that it makes one somewhat apprehensive about where things are going. And so I thought an impending doom sort of narrative would go well with this group’s consideration of Lincoln. Like Lincoln, we’re trying to explore how to rebuild after the chaos.

Co-regulation is one of the transcendent skills of masterful leadership. This is where one individual or a group of individuals provide a calming presence that allows for a transformative growth process in others. One of Lincoln’s many great efforts was to co-regulate the African-American population of the United States at a time where they were the most marginalized, denigrated group of people. He took his powerful position and became a family member, in essence. He began to be called Father Abraham, I think this was how he’s been referenced in those early periods post-emancipation. So, that’s an example. You cannot do that level of co-regulation unless you have a very profoundly skilled self-regulation.

is part of the main point I’m trying to get across. This also was revealed in the Shackleton story, where it really was the men of the endurance–28 of them that co-regulated each other so that all 28 could get home. This was a rather masterful stroke. We’ve all recently heard of Ulysses. His greatness was to get home by himself. Unfortunately, all his men died, He made tribute to all the men who died—but none of them lived. By contrast, you have the case of Shackleton in the modern day, who unlike Ulysses managed to get everybody home. I think that that was only possible because of the level of co-regulation and getting people working on survival-related matters together. These men survived in the midst of an incredible stress that I personally don’t know that I would have survived. He managed to get 28 people and a bunch of dogs through that period.

Walt

As we probe deeper into masterful leadership lets each reflect on what you perceive your purpose to be. I’m going even a little deeper into that world of purpose. What’s your purpose as a leader? You’re going beyond the ego of who we usually think we are to a little broader, bigger, deeper, more meaningful area of who at this point of your development, who you believe you are beyond the ego. Know your higher self well and the purpose you’re here to serve.