Stone Walls and Leadership: How are they connected?
In New England, the landscape is dotted with low stone walls, some defining property, some looking more like a garden landscape project, and others so integrated into the land that they look almost like they’ve been there since the beginning of time.
Their existence has glacier origins from 30,000-15,000 years ago. When the ice sheet melted and receded, deposits of bedrock were left behind, and over many years, a rich soil suitable for planting formed over them.
Imagine an open field ready for planting, an oasis surrounded by thick, old-growth forests. There is opportunity there, for new growth, for prosperity. But as you survey the field, you realize it is dotted with stones of all sizes and shapes. To make full use of the land, you will need to manage the stones.
Now imagine dealing with those stones: removing them one at a time, with great effort, and realizing that they can be useful in another way. Stones placed strategically in a line, then built up into a low wall, become a thing of strength, purpose, and beauty.
New England walls remind me of my leadership journey. I encountered my first opportunities to lead early in life—in junior high, in fact—when I was placed with a group of students and given opportunities to learn about my own leadership capabilities. I picked up my first stone then, turned it over in my hands, considered it, and set it aside. I learned different things as I gathered more stones in the coming months and then years. Sometimes they were connected, sometimes random, but I contributed each to the pile until they began to form something.
My leadership journey has now spanned over 45 years, and my New England wall is long and strong. I continue not only to build on its foundation but also to place additional foundational stones to extend its reach. Sometimes I rearrange the stones to make them fit together just right, and sometimes I need to rebuild parts of the wall that have weakened because I unwittingly removed key parts.
This blog spot is about those stones, the wisdom they hold, and their collective strength as a New England wall.