On my recent vacation I spent time in Yosemite. Besides everything else that makes Yosemite a great place, the most abundant and obvious are trees. Majestic, big, small, tall, dead, huge, new, old, very old, and everything in between. Trees are the tallest free-standing organisms in the world. Trees live longer and become more massive than any other living thing on earth.
While my husband bravely undertook a 6 mi. trail to see one of the three groves that include Sequoias, I stayed sitting under the trees. Observing, absorbing, smelling, feeling, reflecting. . . . What follows is my reflections on leadership lessons from nature.
Trees have roots
In the trees I was looking at, the roots were strong and deep. As long as the roots were healthy, the tree was healthy. But an uprooted tree was a dead tree. Leadership needs to be grounded in deep values and ethics if the organization is to survive.
Trees keep it simple
As long as a tree has what it needs (water, sun, food, space), it gets the business of growing and living done. They don’t seem to need long elaborate meetings and plans. If you give the people what they need, they will get it done without much fuss.
Trees have strong trunks
The trunk of a tree is what connects the leafy crown with its roots. It’s the backbone that sustains the branches and leaves. You can identify different trees by the differences in their bark. The bark is the outer covering that protects the tree from weather, disease, insects, fire, and injury.
Regardless of their appearance, the trunk is the inter-connector. Roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil, which are then transported up the tree trunk in cells that act much like pipes. This allows the leaves to obtain water and nutrients that are necessary for the manufacture of food from light energy (photosynthesis). Food made in the leaves is then transported down to the roots and to other parts of the tree for growth.
The leadership of an organization needs to be that conduit of life. Leaders should facilitate the interchange of information between all the parts of the organization. They should also protect the organization from internal and external threats. Yet, leaders also need the information that every member of the organization brings. If leaders stop listening to others, it’s as if the tree were refusing to take the food made in the leaves. Leaders and followers need each other for the growth and health of the organization.
Trees are not afraid to bend
The living structure of trees combines both strength and flexibility. Because trees bend with the wind, instead of trying to resist it, they survive storms without snapping. Their branches sway in the wind and bend when loaded with snow or ice. Leaders don’t need to get bent out of shape about turbulences of conflict or change. Work with the energy, instead of against it, and it will make the leader and the organization stronger.
Trees change, and survive
They deal with four seasons, drought, overcrowding, undercrowding, global warming, people, bugs, animals, and whatever else gets thrown at them. Good businesses do this too (well, maybe not bugs and animals, but you get the point). Companies that don't do well with change, don't stay around too long. Good leadership involves everybody in surviving and thriving.
Trees do it together
Roots and leaves don’t complain about each other. Branches don’t decide to exclude the trunk from meetings. Every part of a tree does their job well. The work of all individual parts make a whole tree healthy and keeps it growing. When every individual in an organization is working on what they can do best, and doing their job well, all kind of good things happen.
Although there are some lone trees out there, they work better together, in groups, in the form of a grove or a forest. They must compete with other plants from their own and different species for space, water, nutrients and light. What makes it grow tall and strong is competing for light as they grow to hold their leaves above other plants and shade them out. Together they also weather storms easier and protect each other.
Successful companies consist of groups of people working together to make something happen. Trying to “shine” as a lone leader is risky and often leads to death. Leaving people out of your plans is not a good idea. There is strength in numbers. And in the variety of a “forest” every different person has a place and a job that will serve the wellbeing of all.
Trees are welcoming and non-critical
Trees welcome all creatures to rest under it’s shade. No matter how much the inhabitants of the tree mess with its branches or the visitors on the ground bump, recline, or pick on the trunk of the tree, the tree does not cry, complain or worry. It knows that such messes become fertilizer in the ground, making the tree healthy and strong.
Likewise, an effective leader does not lament mistakes of subordinates because they know that negative experiences can be used to make the organization stronger. They welcome feedback and innovation knowing that, even what seems messy, can be healthy.
Trees give
By taking in their leafs CO2 and giving back oxygen, trees are always contributing to maintaining health. They also give seeds, shade and cool. They give energy. They give life. Even after dead they contribute generously to many industries, art, and comfort.
The leadership of an organization is there to serve and to give. Not to take and hoard. Even if your own plans “died,” many times they can serve as the seed for another idea that will work even better.
Remember. . .
Be grounded like a tree, yet stand tall to look out as a visionary. Be strong like a trunk, yet bend with flexibility. Be willing to stand alone if needed, but collaborate with those around you to become stronger together.
Welcome challenges and people, growing stronger with the different experiences. Above all, serve others and give the best of yourself. Your leadership will then contribute to a healthy organization.
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