Anyone who knows me will laugh when they see my name attached to a blog about gardening! Whereas I know a great deal about leadership and people frequently ask me to speak and write on the topic, I am woefully ignorant about gardening. For years, my only gardening experience was when my mother forced us children out into the massive, largely untamed garden in our backyard to do 30 minutes of weeding each summer day before we were allowed to play. Back then, gardens were a dark, evil place that voraciously consumed our precious lives.
But with a growing desire to eat healthier, I gradually launched a modest effort to grow some edible plant life. To date, I still don’t have a real garden like the one from my childhood. For full disclosure, I have a raised garden box (aff). I also have a collection of blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry bushes I planted (in the vain hope of cobblers), and this year I inherited my mother’s vertical aeroponic tower garden (aff). I also have a composter barrel to make more soil. And that’s it (for now!). Nonetheless, you only need to grow one plant to begin seeing parallels between gardening and leadership. Here are a few lessons I have been learning.
1.Growing things is fun!
If you want to start acting crazy, just plant something in dirt. I placed my above-ground garden box just outside the door to my office. One day after planting, I was already finding excuses to slip outside to check my garden. It’s exciting to see little plants bursting forth from the soil in search of sunlight! On first look, you just see dirt. Then there is one lone plant escaping the dirt. Then another. Then they start popping up all over. Then the wait for the harvest begins! If it is a tomato plant, you are not satisfied with just leaves and stems. There is something truly exhilarating about starting with nothing but a seed and some dirt and eventually making a salad!
Leadership is much the same way. Leaders love to see things grow. I have tried to view every organization I have led in terms of what it would be like when it grew. My first church was in rough shape when I arrived. Numerous scandals had rocked the congregation, and attendance had plummeted for seven consecutive years. There were stacks of chairs at the side of the auditorium that were no longer necessary. There were empty classrooms. Much like gardening, I worked to grow that church. I started Sunday School classes for young couples and single adults. Later, we began a women’s class. My heart felt full every time I walked around the facility and saw the bustle of activity where there once had been vacant space.
I also felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw people I led grow. When that newlywed Sunday School class I started was bursting at the seams, I brought in a co-teacher. I gave him opportunities to teach the class and provided encouragement and feedback. Eventually, I sent him off to teach his own class, and I brought in another co-teacher. Few things gave me more pleasure than when these new teachers excitedly told me about what God was doing in their class and how it was growing. Sadly, statistics indicate that 70% of churches in North America are either plateaued or in decline. That statistic is demoralizing to any leader who, like a gardener, is wired to see things grow.
2. Tend the soil.
I live in Georgia where we have a lot of red clay for soil. Not the easiest environment in which to grow things! That soil has been the killing fields for my berry bushes. I have planted tender little plants into that unforgiving soil and then watched them bravely try to survive for a time before eventually succumbing to the harsh environment.
This year, since I’ve already had two dozen trips cancelled due to COVID-19, I decided to invest more in my soil. I have a compost barrel in which I place leaves and various organic debris from cooking. It has begun to produce some rich new soil. I have been placing that soil all along berry row. I’ve also been loosening up the soil, pulling weeds, and doing anything I can to make it as easy as possible for plants to grow.
Leaders do the same thing. In the early days, I used to enlist new leaders and set them loose to sink or swim. Many sank. I have learned to plant emerging leaders into inviting soil. Sometimes we know there are problems with a department or with certain staff, yet we place a new leader in the role and leave it to that person to fix the problem. The leader hasn’t had a chance to get her bearings yet and already she is being eaten alive by problems not of her own making. Or we appoint a new leader but then inform him that cash flow is tight, so he can’t spend any money right now! Or we appoint a new leader and then don’t check on her during the early stages to help her address any problems.
I gave several people their first management positions. I remember one new manager who had always watched management from the outside and had formulated ideas of what good management looked like. He wanted to organize his new office and develop schedules for everything so his department was organized. The problem was that there were some issues that urgently needed his attention. Some people were beginning to complain about work that wasn’t getting done. I had to circle back around and gently help my new hire see what was urgent and what was not. I also taught him a little about office politics and how to keep people happy while getting his priorities accomplished long term. This man had some great qualities, but he was about to suffer transplant shock if I did not help soften the soil around him to help him succeed.
3. Check your local climate.
A related issue to soil is climate. I live in Atlanta, which has a much longer growing season than where I used to live in Canada! But as a novice gardener, I have had to learn that some of my favorite fruits and vegetables don’t do well here. It gets too hot! When I first started growing things, I naively thought I’d just grow my favorite fruits and vegetables. I would look at pictures of luscious fruit plants online and long to order some for my garden. But I learned that there are different climate zones in North America. If I wanted to plant a blueberry or blackberry plant, I needed to find a variety that could handle Georgia’s climate.
Of course, this principle has enormous ramifications for organizational leadership. A pastor might read a church growth magazine and learn how a church in southern California is reaching people. So the New England pastor tries to use the same method in his New England climate. You get the point. Don’t assume everything can transfer seamlessly from one climate to another.
4. Watch for intruders.
I’m a busy person. I tend to plant some seeds and saplings in spring, water them for a few days, and then wait impatiently for harvest. Last year was a bad year for that management style. I travel a lot, and I remember noticing that my raspberry and blackberry plants were looking unusually full and luxurious. The verdant green foliage was spreading across the fence line. One day I went to take a closer look. To my horror, I realized the extra foliage was actually a rogue vine that was strangling out my precious fruit plants. This sinister intruder had wrapped itself firmly around my tender plants and was sucking the life out of them. Upon closer examination, I discovered that this interloper had spread all over my yard and needed serious attention. I lost more than half my plants in my war to eradicate my garden of that menace.
I have learned in leading organizations that all manner of disruptive influences are seeking an inroad. Leaders must always be on their guard. Perhaps a seemingly nice couple joins your church, and you are initially pleased that they are fitting in so well. They attend all the church meetings, including corporate business sessions. But then you notice that they are going out to eat with various couples in the church with whom you have had disagreements in the past. You begin to sense that there is trouble brewing. You call the pastor of the church where this couple used to attend, and he gives you an earful on how disruptive this couple has been in every church they have attended. Now you have a problem on your hands, and whatever you do, you are probably going to lose some people in the process. One lesson I learned as a child in our family garden was that weeding out problems doesn’t get any easier if you procrastinate.
Or maybe you hire a highly qualified new manager for your team, but she seems to have a negative edge about her. At first, you dismiss it as her desire to be thorough. But you begin to notice that she regularly opposes any new initiative and is becoming a disruptive influence in your executive team meetings. You begin to suspect you made a bad hire.
My experience has been that things never get better over time. More time merely allows the disruptive person to entangle more people in their grasp. I teach a weekly Bible study at my church on Sunday mornings for single adults. During one fall, I was out of town for about six Sundays in a row. While I was away, a man and his wife and daughter began attending our class. It’s a single adult class, but the man explained that he loved my teaching and had a heart for single adults. Against my better judgment, I agreed to let him be one of my assistants. At first, things seemed to be going well. He would go for lunch with some of the singles and report back to me how they were doing. Since I was so busy, I was glad our class members were getting some attention. But I eventually became concerned. This man was slowly developing a small following of people who were loyal to him. Red flags began cropping up. I notified the church staff. They did some checking and found troublesome information about his past. We had to ask him to stop attending our class. I lost some people as a result of the way this man manipulated and ultimately exploited them.
Leaders must be vigilant against thieves who come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). These people are everywhere, and they will creep into your organization if you are not vigilant.
5. Don’t let your plants spread.
Some plants like to roam. They aren’t content to remain where they were planted. My raspberries are that way. I designated a certain part of my fence line for them. I was delighted to see the plants multiplying, especially since most of my plants tend to decrease in number! But my raspberries don’t always make wise decisions. Some began growing next to my blackberries. My blackberries were much more particular, and I could not allow them to be overrun by their raspberry cousins. The other day, I found a raspberry plant that was growing in my lawn outside its designated bed. It was directly in the path of where the landscaping crew typically came barreling past on their riding mower. That little plant wouldn’t have a chance. I replanted it back into its bed where it could thrive. Plants are funny that way.
People do the same thing! In fact, this truth is evident in the Peter Principle. Someone thrives in a particular environment, so they are promoted into an entirely different job that is beyond their skill set, and they get mowed down by a riding mower. Some people have unbridled ambition. They want to keep climbing the corporate ladder, even if doing so takes them into roles they can’t handle. This tendency is often the root cause of growing bureaucracies. People keep trying to move into additional areas of control and prestige until the organization is overrun with needless red tape and turfs that are jealously guarded by unproductive people. Leaders need to know their people, and they must limit them to positions in which they can thrive.
6. Enjoy the harvest!
At the end of the day, it’s all about the harvest! You may enjoy seeing vegetables grow and mature, but that experience pales in comparison to eating those vegetables! Leadership is ultimately about results. Leaders strive to achieve their goals for both their organizations and their people. Leaders move people on to God’s agenda. Constructing buildings, developing a corporate culture, and articulating mission statements are merely a means to an end.
Some people are constantly reading articles on popular online gardening sites. They tinker with irrigation lines, and they maintain a state-of-the-art composting system. But at the end of the day, there is no harvest. In the same way, some leaders are big on process but short on product. I know leaders who bustle from meeting to meeting. They are constantly answering emails and checking their calendars. But they don’t get results. The measurement of a leader’s success is not how busy they are but the results they achieve.
Many experienced gardeners are never entirely content with their product. Sure, their tomatoes were delicious. But with better quality soil next year and perhaps some more water, they could still be better! So it is with effective leaders. Even when they have an outstanding organization, they know it is growing steadily out of date with each passing year. So they keep tinkering, evaluating, measuring, and improving.
Like gardening, the process of leading is enjoyable to a leader. It isn’t so much work as it is a calling. A leader’s reward is seeing progress and growth.
My advice? Plant a garden. At least an herb garden for your deck or windowsill. Try growing something! Then ask God to teach you lessons you need to learn about growing the people and organization in your care.
