Leadership Lessons - My Garden Taught Me!

Life has turned 180 degrees and there are no more Monday Blues or TGIFs anymore. However, every challenge leads to an awakening and an opportunity to reflect upon ourselves. During these COVID times, it has been quite a wakeup call when I had an opportunity to embrace mother nature in my backyard and my organization together. It has changed my perspective and I would like to take you through this journey. At the same time, I came across a great book which validated why I am feeling this way.

Link to the book: How to Make a Plant Love You by Summer Rayne Oakes

Every garden is built with a purpose. Its core elements are the seed, samplings, soil, aesthetic aspect, the plants and much more. Every plant has a different need in terms of water, sunlight and shadow. Some like to thrive together while some need to be grow independently. As a gardener a.k.a leader of the garden, how do we make sure that each plant is thriving and getting enough of our love so that they start loving us? The freshness depicts how happy and beautiful they feel while they are growing. Have we ever thought about this?

When I wear my hat as an engineering leader and get back to work, I view my entire organization as a garden where I want each of my employees to thrive and have the teams grow together. An organization is like a garden and we build our team with certain core values which in turn becomes the culture. As leaders we need to understand our employees to get the best out of them. It requires understanding their strengths and aligning them with the core values. Team building is like putting the plants together so that as a team they come out as high performing teams.

Leadership and gardening are all about creating a positive change so we can all thrive together. Let me walk you through this maze where we all will feel a deep connection between plants and peeps. Here are a few steps we all do when we do our gardening.

Preparing the soil with hope and belief: When I prepare my plants, I always create a soil bed with the hope that the seeds or the saplings are going to get the best nourishment and come out strong. Similarly, when we hire or move people around, it is important to understand that we are creating a conducive environment for them to be successful. There is a trust between us and our employee that builds this hope and belief.

Providing the nourishment: As gardeners our job is not done just by planting. Plant needs constant nourishment with fertilizer, water and sunlight. As leaders, it is important that we create room for constant learning, growth opportunities and let our peeps be creative. Putting too much fertilizer can kill the plant. In the similar manner employees can get burned out when they are overloaded with unrealistic responsibility in the name of growth. We take out weeds so that plants can grow. Likewise, we need to remove the impediments for our peeps so that they can move forward.

Passion and Praise: I am sure each of us is curious about the flowers and the plants we planted. We need to constantly prune them so that they can grow faster. Similarly, as a leader, it is important to show empathy, coaching and trust for our peeps. Leaders should always carry the watering can of praise and use it in a timely manner. It is equally important to act on when things are not heading in the right direction.

Picking the harvest: When we start seeing the fruits and flowers coming out, our eyes are filled with joy and we are ready to enjoy all the hard labor that we have put in. What is our harvest? Our harvest is the personal and professional growth that we have put in ourselves and others around us. It takes time and effort to create this harvest. Investing in people leads to high performing teams with stellar results.

So next time you decide to do gardening or watch a garden around you, think about the lessons, the relationships that you have built over years. Your role is to create great leaders and invest in growing.

Happy Gardening, Stellar Leadership!!