The month of May is thought to have been named for the Greek goddess Maia. In ancient Roman lore she was identified with fertility, considered an earth goddess, and embodied the concept of growth.
On the farm where I grew up, May was an extremely busy month in the fields. There was a short window to get the crops planted so they’ve had enough time to grow during the summer before the killing frosts of fall.
I now maintain my earth connection through my perennial gardens. May’s a very busy month of clean up, planting, and fertilizing. In King Henry IV, Shakespeare recognizes this high energy time with the words, “as full of spirit as the month of May.”
What seeds are you planting? How is your team’s growth? What crops is your organization nurturing for future harvests?
Hopefully, you’ll rediscover fertile leadership insights, inspiration, and instruction in tomorrow’s issue of The Leader Letter. This issue compiles my April blogs into one publication. These include building leadership capacity, unlocking the secrets of extraordinary leaders, and planting the seeds of inspiring leadership.
As epitomized in the goddess Maia, women have long been nurturers and growers. One of April’s blogs reported on a new study examining whether women have grown beyond that stereotypical role and are better overall leaders than men. And high-performance teams are “as full of spirit as the month of May.” Use the 10 point checklist in the May issue as a team growth check-up.
Human Resource or people skills are vital nutrients that can accelerate team and organizational growth. We’ll review an excellent new benchmarking tool for HR/people competencies. And reading books can lead to high growth — if they’re the right ones. I’ve outlined what I’ve found distinguish the most fertile from the thousands of weedy books that suck energy from our soil.
Fields and gardens can be well cultivated or allowed to run wild. Nature abhors a vacuum, so plants will grow. What we sow and nurture is what we reap. May you use this time to refill your spirit and plant the seeds of success!
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