The Beesness of Leadership

Do you have a hive mind?

As leaders it's easy to fall into the island mindset, that we're on our own and we have to figure things out on our own. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, I've found that when we as leaders work with a hive mindset our leadership grows, flourishes, and expands with the potential to create more than we ever thought possible.

What is a hive mindset?

Last week I had the pleasure of prepping my bee hives for winter with Leigh-Kathryn Bonner from Bee Downtown. Her story is inspiring.

Leigh-Kathryn is a fourth generation beekeeper who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina learning beekeeping from her grandfather and uncle.

As she was finishing her degree at N.C. State she imagined what it might look like to keep bees on the rooftops of local businesses. She wanted to take the bees to an urban setting.

Why? Because of the tremendous impact bees have on our everyday lives.

Think about this.

Honeybees are responsible for every third bite of food we eat. Seventy of the top 100 crops in the world are pollenated by honeybees. And yet the global bee population faces serious health challenges due to decreased habitat, unbalanced diets, and harmful chemicals, to name a few.

In an urban setting bees can chose from a smorgasbord of food sources. And because folks like to keep gardens year round, those food sources can help offset the effects of a short spring or extra long summer, both of which make it tough on honey making in a rural setting.

By introducing bees to the urban environments Bee Downtown looks to help strengthen the overall health of the bee population.

Leigh-Kathryn's employer agreed to put a couple hives on the roof and then put her in touch with Burt's Bees. And the rest is bee history.

Now Bee Downtown gives leaders and entrepreneurs the chance to learn invaluable lessons from beekeeping. "Every time you open up the lid of a beehive you learn something you never knew before," says Leigh-Kathryn.

I couldn't agree more. Here's something I've learned.

"By herself one honey bee makes one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her entire life," says Leigh-Kathryn, "but together a hive can generate over eighty pounds of honey in just a matter of months. So if our communities can work together, like a healthy hive, we can collectively create lasting change in the world we are all proud to be a part of."

What a practical lesson for leaders.

On our own we can only do so much. But when we work together, our potential for incredible influence in our world grows exponentially!

Wouldn't it be great if we could all lead, live, and grow with a hive mindset? Let's try putting it into practice, even this weekend. How can we seek to contribute to the work of others? How can we invite others into our work? What might we imagine for our community to make it a better place?

For more information on Leigh-Kathryn's work with Bee Downtown you can check out her website. There's plenty of ways to get involved!

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash