Colleagues,
All of the outdoor analogies from the past two weeks seem to have resonated with people. This has got me thinking about leadership from a gardening perspective. If people are like gardens, then the leader is like a gardener. Gardeners do a number of things to care for gardens and this week we’ll look at seven of them. The first step in gardening is to evaluate the space. Not all things will grow in all places, so assessing sunlight, positioning, soil conditions and other things are integral. Basically, getting to know your garden is the first step towards helping it flourish. People are the same way. I’ve seen leaders come in and immediately begin trying to remake or change people without understanding who those people are. If you are serious about leading, a core component of which is serving and growing people, you must get to know them. What do you need to know?
Evaluating a garden takes time. A space that looks perfect in the spring may not get enough sun in the summer or be too exposed in the winter. It is similar with people. We all have our own “seasons” and we behave differently and have unique capacities and challenges in each one. You can get a lot out of this series by doing these things today:
Do good and be well, Frederick
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Colleagues,
Instead of traveling to England for a Grand Adventure hiking the Pennine Way, my wife and I “decided” to stay home and tackle a bunch of home projects. One of them was redoing our firepit. Our first one, dug hurriedly 15 years ago, was simply a clean out of the one that had been built by the previous owners. It was basically a depression in the ground with a ring of stones. The old firepit had become a mountain of ash. We also needed to move it to make way for a greenhouse. Although we don’t have hotdog roasts with the kids anymore, we do live in a rural area and frequently burn fallen limbs and other garden debris. So, we decided that we wanted to build this firepit the “right” way, which in our case meant digging a foot down through the clay and rocks, and then lining the bottom with flat stones. As I was chipping out the last few inches of rock and clay, I wondered why we were going to all of the trouble. There is no doubt the old firepit wasn’t serviceable any longer, but we should have asked ourselves a couple of questions before we began:
In our case, it worked out well and the time and energy were worth the results. However, we should have asked those questions first. Are you planning to make any changes in your organization this year? Maybe you should ask yourself those same questions before you pick up the shovel. Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
We’ve been talking about intentionally planting seeds for the past two days. In writing yesterday about how to be more intentional in your seed planting, I got to thinking about a couple people I’ve known who seemed to plant seeds everywhere they went. I hope you know the kind of person I am talking about. We are better because we spent time with them. Their lives seem to be one continuous journey of planting seeds. The curious thing is that they are not intentionally planting each individual seed, but instead they intentionally live as farmers or gardeners. Some people are able to intentionally live, and this intentional living allows them to plant seeds without focusing on it. They are gardeners, not just planters. For the rest of this week, I’ll be asking myself a few questions:
Maybe I could grow into a great gardener, maybe not, but it seems like the effort will make me a better leader. Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues,
Yesterday I shared a cartoon and discussed being intentional about planting seeds instead of just burying nuts. My colleague, Dr. Robert Maddox, noted that sometimes we try and plant seeds, but if the soil isn’t fertile, no matter how hard we try, the seeds may not grow. His comment got me to thinking about what it means to intentionally plant seeds. It begins with intention, but then what? If you want to intentionally plant seeds, try these things:
The first point has always been the hardest for me. What about you? Do good and be well, Frederick Colleagues, How intentional are you? My mom sent me this cartoon last week and it resonated with me: If you are a squirrel, you bury nuts. It is what squirrels do. But sometimes those nuts grow into trees. As leaders, we run around doing things. It is what we do. And sometimes, those “things” grow into something special that yields goodness and sustenance. What if we were more intentional? What if we actively thought about and tried to create things that would grow? It’s more than just doing things. Every interaction we have with another person is an opportunity to plant a seed. Maybe that earnest question you ask a colleague about a family member decreases their sense of isolation. Maybe that comment about their unique strength empowers them to go do something great. Maybe that alternative perspective you provide helps them create something unique. Maybe those things will happen by accident, like the nut growing into a tree. Or, those things could happen routinely, by planting acorns and nurturing oak trees - intentionally. |
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