Gardening isn’t passive

There’s a style of leadership called gardening.

It focuses on creating a good culture and nurturing individuals to build a strong organization.

It’s often mischaracterized as a passive leadership style.

But gardening is anything but passive.

There are many aspects to gardening. You may have a good system, and it could work really well for you.

That certainly makes things easier.

But times change, environments change, plants change.

That all applies to organizations and people too.

Gardening is definitely a long-term game. It takes patience.

When you mess something up, it could take a while to fix (but that’s true in every environment).

It’s an active process though. You can’t let up.

If you aren’t actively making the culture better, it naturally entropies.

If you aren’t actively caring for and showing up for your people, they’ll feel that.

But the best part about gardening is that it’s a process that works.

If you listen, learn, and adjust you’ll be just fine. And your garden will be just fine.

And being just fine is how you do well in the long run.