While seasons change, our commitment to our people remains.

Exemplary leaders frame their role in terms of their responsibilities to others and understand that their teams go through seasons that affect performance.

The best leaders grow teams for a purpose and understand that they go through seasons differently based upon what they were constructed to do.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to recognize when to plant, prune, and harvest. And because individuals and teams are at different stages of development it is important that we engage them in ways appropriate to their season.

Let's quickly review the stages:

Planting

I love the planting time!

There is almost always something we can be planting that will help us or our teams for the future. In the garden you can take any number of seeds and place them into the dirt, water them for a few days and soon see change as the seed becomes a plant.

We shouldn't forget to adjust our expectations based upon the seeds we are planting. For example, lettuce seeds may take days to produce while acorns planted will take years.

Pruning

This may be my least favorite. It means that we have to change and cut away growth that looks healthy in order to produce the best crop. The truth is that when we don't prune we are hurting our teams and our overall productivity declines. The best leaders cut away the good in order to produce the great!

Harvest

When we plant the right seeds and have pruned at the right time we can expect a good harvest.

This is the really fun part! It is where our teams celebrate their achievements. It is from this harvest we take seed to replant. They cycle repeats.

Questions to consider:

• What is your team built to do?

• What season is your team in today?

The best leaders have the right motive. Check out Patrick Lencioni’s Latest book.