High Agency Human: Navigate Adversity and Live Big book review by Trevor Blondeel
| Jenn Donahue, PhD, 2025
What This Book Means for Manufacturing Leaders
For plant managers, operations leaders, and frontline supervisors, the expectation to improve production efficiency, employee retention, and team engagement never lets up, yet many struggle with internal self-doubt that impacts decision-making and accountability on the shop floor. While leadership development often focuses on lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and operational excellence, Becoming the Warrior highlights the internal mindset that drives real results, helping leaders strengthen resilience, communication, and action when the weight of the role makes you question if you have what it takes.
This is the kind of leadership content we share every month in the Manufacturing Greatness newsletter. Practical book recommendations, leadership tools, and insights built for the shop floor.
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What’s It All About?
Jenn Donahue is a retired U.S. Navy Captain with 27 years of service, a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a civil engineer with a PhD from UC Berkeley. She built a bridge across the Euphrates River under fire and commanded an 800-person battalion. And still, she had to fight the voices in her own head every single day.
That is what this book is about. Not toughening up. Not faking confidence. But learning to recognize the internal voices that are quietly running the show, and building a framework to deal with them. If you are a leader who has ever wondered whether you really belong in the role you are in, this book was written for you.
The Big Idea
Jenn introduces two characters that will feel immediately familiar. The Mean Little Voice is your inner critic. The Sneaky Little Bastard is a combination of procrastination and perfectionism that disguises itself as reason. In manufacturing, that looks like the leader who avoids the hard conversation with an underperforming team member. The supervisor who knows what needs to change but finds a reason to deal with it tomorrow.
Her reframe of what a warrior actually is stopped me cold. A warrior does not put on armor and go to war. The armor is what holds you back. Real warriors go in without it. Vulnerable, honest, and prepared. That takes more courage, not less. The framework she builds is called Perceive, Assess, Ready, and Act. It is drawn from military rules of engagement and applied to the inner voices that stop leaders from stepping up.
Favorite Quote
“These are wooden signs and superficial mantras, bland affirmations. They are the icing on a moldy cake.”
That line made me laugh out loud. How many times have we been told to just believe in ourselves, put a motivational quote on the wall, and push through? Jenn is saying the cake underneath is still rotten. The voices know your actual flaws, even the ones you are not willing to acknowledge. A simple mantra is not going to shut them up.
Biggest Takeaway
The section on impostor syndrome hit me differently than I expected. Jenn makes a distinction most people miss: being humble and having impostor syndrome are not the same thing. Being humble is owning your achievements without bragging about them. Impostor syndrome does not recognize your achievements at all. You could have a wall full of credentials and still feel like you will never be enough.
The more ambitious you are, the more you push boundaries, the more you start to feel like a fraud. That is not a sign something is wrong with you. That is a sign you are growing. There have been plenty of moments building Manufacturing Greatness where I put my head on my desk and wondered if I really had what it takes. Jenn’s advice is simple. Think about your accomplishments and remember your why. You are doing this because it is the right thing for you. That is enough.
Bonus Information
Research from the University of Tokyo found that writing things down on paper leads to stronger brain activity and better memory recall than using a digital device. People who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. Jenn has tools and exercises available at thewarriorframework.com/tools to help you put the framework into practice.
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Reviewed by: Trevor Blondeel, April 2026