Seasons of Leadership
Hi Everyone!
It's me, Tessa, back with another installment of the Canopy newsletter. Today I’m going to talk about seasonality in leadership. When I use the term “leadership” in this newsletter I am referring to organizational, team, initiative, community, and movement leaders, and to anyone who is working to push forward something new or different.*
Anyone in any of these roles knows that leading is hard work! To lead well requires vulnerability, resilience, empathy, and more. It also requires constant learning and personal growth and development.
Leading can be incredibly rewarding and inspiring, and it can also be draining, overwhelming, and full of uncertainty
Much of my work is with leaders and I hear from clients all the time about the many ways that they are struggling to support their teams through transition, chart a course through uncertain waters, or disrupt deeply entrenched patterns and systems. Many of the leaders I support feel a deep sense of connection and responsibility for their organization’s mission, their team’s well being, and for forwarding equity and justice. This is both motivating and being at the forefront of these efforts can take a personal toll.
The highs and lows of leadership is also something I am deeply personally connected to. In an earlier newsletter I shared a little about my own struggle to find balance and sustainability in my equity and justice work, and in my life. I am the co-founder of a deeply mission driven company and I have also taken on many leadership roles in previous jobs and in my community, including running for local office. I am continuing to learn about the importance of seasonality in my own leadership and for the leaders I support.
The Ayni Institute offers a beautiful model of the seasonality of leadership. They describe that leadership has four seasons:
Winter
This season of leadership is characterized by rest and reflection. It is a period of time to focus inwards on regeneration and on evaluating the lessons and insights from the previous leadership cycle. This is also when leaders recommit and birth the next leadership cycle. The depth and intentionality of winter is critical to creating space for a productive spring. Winters can feel uncomfortable. They are a vulnerable season. However, the winter is essential to integrate the lessons of past leadership cycles and prepare for the birth of the next.
Spring
This season of leadership is about opening yourself to possibilities, responsibilities, and experimentation. Spring is the start of a new cycle. During spring leaders feel more excitement, energy, and are willing to take on more risk. Spring is a crucial time to try new things and generate new ideas. If leaders rush through spring, our organizations and movements miss out on the opportunity to develop new ways of thinking, being, and acting.
Summer
This season of leadership is all about doing and giving. During this time the focus is external. Leaders are focused on activity and production. Summers can be intense, and in this high activity season creating balance and sustainability is important to avoid burnout.
Fall
This season of leadership is when we get to see the results and outcomes of the work from the summer. Leaders get to celebrate their wins and see the gains they have made. It is also a time when many leaders experience waning energy. Building the awareness to notice when it is fall in your leadership cycle and slowing down accordingly prevents burnout and allows for an intentional shift into winter, rather than a crash landing.
The four seasons of leadership are natural and inevitable - meaning that we all move through all of these seasons. As leaders, one of the most important gifts we can give ourselves, our organizations, and our communities is to build the skill, awareness, and capacity to notice which season of leadership we are in, embrace it, and intentionally make space for the wisdom that that season offers.
Unfortunately in our white supremist and capitalist society production is expected all the time, and rest, recovery, and reflection is rarely prioritized.
Capitalism would like it to always be spring and summer - high innovation, high risk taking, high production, high activity, and high intensity. However there is a real danger to pretending that it is possible for it to always be summer. We are human beings, not cogs in a machine. When we do not make space for fall and winter we harm ourselves and we ultimately harm our organizations. I have learned through bitter experience that if I don’t take the time to slow down my body will make me receive the message through illness and depression. This trend is even more true for Black women who experience disproportionate levels of workplace stress due to a combination of workplace racism and gender bias.
There is also a danger in not anticipating and embracing the falls and winters in our leadership as natural and welcome parts of our cycle. As leaders, we can get discouraged, disengaged, and even give up when we notice our energy waning. If we don’t build structures into our organizations to support the natural cycle of rest and recovery that comes with falls and winters we will lose highly skilled and committed individuals from our organizations. This is a loss for those individuals who may not reach their full capacity and for organizations which lose the skills, learning, and wisdom of highly skilled leaders.
I say all the time to clients that we are striving to do equity and justice work for our whole lives, and even for generations. We will all go through many cycles of the four seasons in our life-long leadership journey.
And the best part of seasons is that they are a cycle! I live in New England, and that first spring day where the birds are chirping and I don’t need my heavy winter coat is magical. When my kids were younger we would walk through the neighborhood gleefully pointing out “signs of spring” - a crocus pushing through the ground or a bud opening on a tree. Releasing yourself to the seasonality of leadership brings with it a sense of acceptance, freedom, and possibility.
I invite you to let that sink into your body, to allow it to create space for where you are right now, and where you get to go in the future.
What season of your leadership are you currently in?
Can you think of a time when you went through a fall of winter season in your leadership? What did that experience feel like? Were you caught off guard? What lessons did you learn from that time?
What structures are there in your organization to support seasonality in leadership?
We'd love to hear about what's coming up for you and what gleanings you are leaving with. Email us and let us know!
With love,
Naqibah, Debbie, and Tessa
*I want to be very clear that in this newsletter I am speaking directly to and about leaders who are actively working to build more equitable, inclusive, and resilient organizations and communities. Those of us who are on the front lines of this work, either because it is formally part of our role or because it is integrated into our leadership style (which it should be for all leaders!), play a crucial role in building the just future we need and deserve. And this is long term, generational work. If we are to sustain, continue, and deepen our equity and justice we work we have to be realistic and honest about what it looks and feels like to be leading this charge over the long term and through adversity. The messages in this newsletter are meant to provide support and deeper understanding and self connection for those of us doing “the work.” They are not meant to be used as an excuse for people with privilege to opt out of doing their part to end systems of oppression. This distinction can sometimes be murky for white people leading equity work. Determining when I am attending to the seasonality of my leadership and refilling my cup in a way that is healthy and needed vs. exercising my privilege is something I have really struggled with, and continue to check in with myself around regularly. I am sure I don’t get it right all of the time, none of us do. And I’m so grateful for the people around me who I can “gut check” with in those moments. If you are a white leader and this sentiment speaks to you I strongly encourage you to sign up for coaching to get to that clarity in yourself.
How To Work With Us
If you’re interested in individual coaching with Tessa or Naqibah to reach clarity and empowerment in your leadership sign up for a free coaching inquiry call here.
We also offer coaching for teams. If your team could benefit from support in leading collectively, building systems to create high impact while making space for rest and recovery, and supporting one another through leadership challenges, sign up for an inquiry meeting here to learn more about how Canopy can help!
