Unbelonging

What if the leaders best equipped to solve society’s hardest problems are the people who never fully fit into the systems around them?

In Unbelonging: The Leadership Superpower for Better Decisions and Improved Healthcare Outcomes, healthcare executive and public health strategist Tracey Veal argues that outsider perspective is not a liability—it is one of the most overlooked strengths in leadership today. Drawing on decades of experience in healthcare leadership, public health strategy, and organizational problem solving, Veal introduces “Seeing 360,” a practical framework for recognizing blind spots, identifying overlooked communities, and building more effective systems.

Veal’s story begins in segregated Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement, where she witnessed both the power of community and the consequences of exclusion at an early age. Those formative experiences shaped observational skills that later guided her career in healthcare innovation and crisis response.

Elsewhere, Veal describes how organizational blind spots repeatedly undermine institutional decision-making frameworks, particularly when leaders rely too heavily on familiar perspectives. Her work spanning hospitals, public health agencies, and corporate healthcare environments demonstrates how systems thinking and inclusive leadership produces stronger operations and better outcomes for individual and communities.