Cultivating Leaders

If we’ve learned anything in the last five years, we’ve learned the importance of leadership. Our institutions have failed us. Events have scared us. And here we are, wondering what to do. So let’s talk about that.

A Time of Profound Transition

These aren’t just changes happening to us—they represent what leadership expert William Bridges calls a “profound transition,” where we’re not just adapting to new circumstances but fundamentally reimagining how leadership works in our world.

Consider the backdrop of history and the seminal work Candide by Voltaire. He wrote it in the shadow of eighteenth-century revolutions, wars, and global tragedies, much like now. People were confused by events. Many lost hope. And some predicted the end of times. Sound familiar?

Candide takes the reader through escalating events, clashing geographies, and cultural debates. The main character faces death, war, social upheaval, and natural disaster. And like today, optimism is interrogated by philosophers and theologians amid the havoc. Hope is all but lost. But as the reader teeters on giving up, Voltaire ends with the simple refrain, “Tend your garden.”

Like us, Voltaire’s hero wasn’t just experiencing external changes but going through what we now understand as a psychological transition. He had to let go of his optimistic philosophy (Bridges’ “Ending” phase) and wander through confusion and chaos (the “Neutral Zone”) before finally discovering his truth about tending one’s garden (the “New Beginning”).

The Power of Tending

For example, just today, I listened to the founder of a Syrian refugee group—Karam House—I volunteer with recounting her recent visit back home to war-torn Aleppo, Syria. Through her, we experience contemporary human tragedy up close and personally as she struggles to find her way to places she used to know. Now piles of rubble. Her talk went from hopeful anticipation to bewilderment, to tears, and finally despair at the task ahead. But just as we almost give up hope, she reminds us of her organization’s commitment to develop 10,000 leaders. A mission developed and launched years before the recent liberation of Syria. Her refrain, in my words, “We’ve been tending our garden of leaders for this moment to rebuild our beloved Syria.”

The founder’s visit to Aleppo represents more than witnessing physical destruction—it marks the emotional ending of what was. But Karam House’s mission shows a profound understanding of Bridges’ transition framework: they’re working in the creative ‘neutral zone’ between Syria’s past and future, preparing leaders who will guide their communities through the psychological transition of rebuilding, not just the physical one.

This is on top of a video call I had last week with one of her developed leaders. He’s a young PhD student we all helped get into the University of Exeter, UK. When I first met him a few years ago, he was a self-taught coder, just out of his teens, offering his skills to the younger emerging Syrian leaders living in Istanbul, Turkey. He’s a great example of what a little tending can do.

Investing in Leadership

So what about us? In times like these, how do we invest in our leadership skills and those of our direct reports and peers? Most of us enjoy the gifts of employment, freedom, and elite education. But strange work environments disrupt our worlds, management is disconnected by remote work, and an unsettled emerging AI technology is clouded by fear and dire predictions.

And during all of this, we’ve learned a few things. We now know in-person conversations with colleagues and customers accelerate relationships and learning. And we know we can no longer depend on congenial opportunistic discussions in the hallways and active on-the-spot mentor coaching. Instead, we must intentionally invest in opportunities to develop ourselves and others. This can even mean intensive multi-day cohorts for accelerating leadership skills and behavior.

What we’re experiencing isn’t just a change in work patterns—it’s a fundamental transition in leadership development. Bridges would tell us that unsettled feelings are natural while we’re in this neutral zone between old and new ways of growing leaders. This explains why simply replicating old patterns through video calls isn’t enough. Instead, intensive multi-day cohorts represent a new beginning—a fresh approach to leadership development from our collective transition.

Tend Your Garden

I echo the refrain from those who have come before us. Tend your garden. Tend to your growth, community, and family. Do this by showing up, doing what can be done within reach, and not letting the moment’s despair dissuade us from persevering. Times like these call on all of us to be leaders, whether big or small and reacquaint ourselves with the timeless refrain from the poem by John Donne, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

“Tend your garden” and Donne’s meditation take on new meaning when we understand them through Bridges’ lens of transition. They’re not just calls to action – they’re guides for navigating the neutral zone we find ourselves in. By understanding that leadership development today requires us to both let go of old patterns and actively create new ones, we can better answer the call these times place upon usthe bell tolls not just for thee but for all of us as we transition this moment together.

Yep, there is much work to be done.



Interested in cohort learning programs for your leaders? Check out Eighty Five, our 3-day intensive development program that zeroes in on the skills that drive 85% of career success: presence, listening, facilitating, communicating, and leading.

 

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