I come from a family of gardeners. My mother, sister, and grandfather all had gardens. Listening to them over the years, I realized that any success they had gardening was because they learned to adapt to changing conditions. Rarely had their winter plans play out exactly as they had intended.
Dry spells, late spring freezes, heavy rains, high winds, deer and rabbits eating plants, and various blights and infestations took their toll all too often. Their near-daily surveying of their gardens frequently led to the need to adjust and adapt to what was happening in the environment.
Leaders can learn from that lesson. Organizational life, constantly beset with unanticipated occurrences, also requires attention and adaptation.
I suspect that you already knew that, though. Your ability to recognize what’s changed in your workplace and take appropriate action to address those changes, enables you to continue to nurture, develop, and grow the people and projects under your care so that you can reap the benefits they produce.
You may not have grown up with gardeners in your family, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think like one.