It’s the end of the growing season here where I live, and this week I was cleaning out my garden containers after a hard frost had finished off what was left of my colorful annuals. While my hands were performing this task, my mind wandered a bit and I started thinking about how gardening is like leadership. (Am I always thinking about leadership? Maybe … )

Anyway, I got to thinking that growing something—whether it’s a plant, an animal, a child, an idea, a leader, a team—takes three things: food, water, and sunshine.

How Leaders Provide Food

While my container plants rely on me for good soil and the occasional shake of Miracle Gro, people in the workplace thrive on a different kind of food. Leader food comes in the form of knowledge, those bits and pieces of information, skill, and experience that give us the nutrients by which to build our performance muscle.

What kind of knowledge food are you providing your team? Are you consistently sharing the organization’s objectives? Are you giving your team assignments that build their skills? Are you coaching them with great questions that encourage them to stretch?

How Leaders Provide Water

There’s a plant in our guest room that I sometimes forget about. Then one day I’ll happen to walk into that room and notice that the poor thing is wilting from thirst. I’ll rush to water it, and probably check on it for the next few days to be sure it’s recovering. Then I’ll slowly get complacent again until I notice it’s in distress. That plant is alive! But it’s pretty much the same size it was a couple of years ago. And it almost never blooms.

A plant doesn’t reach its potential if you only water it when it’s wilting. People are the same. As leaders, water flows through us in words and ideas, coming in and out of our minds and spirits, replenishing and refreshing.

How are you watering your team? Do you tend to overlook them unless/until there’s a problem? Do you flood them with so much that they don’t have time to take it all in? What’s the right balance for your team? For each member of your team?

How Leaders Provide Sunlight

Even if you work in a windowless office, your team needs sunlight. Leader sunlight shines on us when we have success. When we feel good about accomplishment. When we are challenged and supported.

What kind of sunlight are you shining on your team? Individual and group recognition? Appreciation for goals achieved? Challenging work that reflects each team member’s unique gifts?

Key Takeaways

As current leaders, we should supply leader food, leader water, and leader sun to all those around us. We want them to grow into the best people, employees, and leaders they can be. That’s when they’ll bloom and you’ll feel the satisfaction of having grown something wonderful.