I just made salsa which included ingredients that I harvested from my vegetable garden. It’s filled with fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic and a variety of peppers and spices. It’s delicious! I made two versions so that my family would have a choice between mildly spiced and super hot. (I prefer the hot). The reason why I was able to make this wonderful bowl of spicy goodness is because months ago I purchased a wide variety of starter plants from the nursery and planted them in the raised garden beds I had cleaned out and prepared for another growing season. I planted five kinds of tomatoes, six kinds of peppers, and a host of other vegetables. Guess what? When I went to the tomato area, there were tomatoes growing. When I moved to the pepper plants, peppers were ready to harvest. Duh, right?
Well, here’s the point. A lot of times in our organizations, leaders will realize that they need a certain skill set from a team member, but instead of having what the group needs, they have something entirely different. To use the garden metaphor, instead of planting tomatoes, they had planted daisies. Now, I’m not saying that I have anything against daisies…in fact, through the years I’ve had some glorious daisy bushes which I grew from seeds. However, daisies don’t make very good salsa. If you want tomatoes, you must plant tomatoes. When I went to my garden this morning, I knew that I would have the right veggies waiting for me because I had planned ahead and planted what I knew I would want and need for great salsa. In business we must do the same. Leaders must be looking far enough forward to realize that as internal environments change and external circumstances force us to adapt to new challenges, we must plant the seeds for the team members that we will need in the new reality. Or, as Peter Drucker once stated, “Developing talent is business’s most important task.”
This is one of the reasons why I have always been committed to raising up the next generation of leaders and, to drill it down a little, artists who will be the innovators of tomorrow. I can’t tell you how many thousands of young people I’ve worked with over the years in workshops, camps, classes and events, preparing them for the day when they take the reins of leadership. I recently had the privilege of sending off one of my protégé students to a school which is going to prepare her to do far more than I’ve ever done. I look forward to seeing great things from her, and when it happens, I won’t be surprised, because she is simply going to grow into what she was planted to become. Back to the garden – when it’s time to make salsa, she’ll be right there on the pepper bush!
As leaders, we need to be constantly planting for the future. Select the right seeds and invest your time in watering, tending, and nurturing the plants that your organization will need. If you do, you’ll have just the right mix of ingredients to make a perfect salsa, mild or super hot!
Lead well.