What Can Nature Teach You As A Leader?

I love this time of year. The crisp morning air, the kids starting back to school. I always think of my university teaching days and remember the joys of new students, starting new classes, getting back on campus. I’m now gearing up for a busy fall with great clients after a summer of renewal and refocusing.

As part of my renewal this summer I spent a significant time in nature and offer reflections…

When I have an extended time in nature and take time to unplug from technology and demands and fully make contact with the natural world, something occurs beyond words.

At one time or another in our lives, nature will touch you… in some personal, special way… The indescribable magnificence of a flower… The grace and ease of an eagle soaring off a mountain cliff… The roar of wind through a stand of poplars… The exquisite fresh odor of a pine forest… The magnificence of a star-lit sky, whose splendor is spread across endless space…Nature’s immense mystery reminds us of a life that is greater than the little affairs of humans we call problems…

When you sit for an hour in silence, over looking a mountain valley, when you become harmoniously attuned to the natural world, you discover within yourself a sense of relatedness, a sense that all things are an expression of a deeper life, and that we are all descendants of that life. Eventually you find that the subject of your investigation is not actually nature at all, but life itself, and the nature of yourself.

And when you begin to learn to see and understand yourself and the world around you as an expression of this life force, a deep reverence for yourself, for others, and the world we live in emerges. And within this connection lies the capacity to reach others in ways that amplifies our impact. For this high tech age requires a capacity for high touch, the ability to reach those we serve in new ways.

What have you learned about yourself by being in nature? How has a connection to the natural world made you a better person and a better leader?