The Care And Feeding Of Orchids, Part 2 (Episode # 477)

The care and feeding of orchids is a delicate business. Too much or too little of a good substance can lead to an untimely demise. Dr. Karen shares six executive business insights from her experiences with orchid care. The first lesson is to seek outside consultation when you are not knowledgeable about a needed area of expertise. View this episode to see the unveiling of the other insights.

For relevant context see The Care and Feeding of Orchids, Part 1 (Episode # 442, 19 September 2023)

Contact Dr. Karen at: Dr.Karen@transleadership.com

The post The Care and Feeding of Orchids, Part 2 (Episode # 477) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.

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The Care And Feeding Of Orchids, Part 2

The care and feeding of orchids is a delicate business. Too much or too little of a good substance can lead to an untimely demise. Dr. Karen shares six executive business insights from her experiences with orchid care.

In this episode, I am talking about the care and feeding of orchids part two. If you read part one, you will know that I received a beautiful orchid plant from my cousin and his wife. Not being a horticulturist myself, I had a hard time figuring out, how do I care for this orchid, and how do I keep it alive. I talked about that in Episode 442, which was in September of 2023.

How I Saved My Orchid From Overwatering And Thirst

I was so happy at that time that I had kept that orchid blooming for almost four months, which was quite a feat for me. Since that time, many other things have happened to the orchid. Let me give you an update. As I promised, I’d come back, and have some additional leadership lessons that we can learn from the care and feeding of orchids.

First of all, the orchid plant had very healthy green leaves. I did a great job with watering it so that it wasn’t overwatered or underwatered, and the green leaves stayed beautiful for a long time. The beginning of the year happened and my schedule changed. I started traveling much more aggressively. I was gone for long periods of time from 10 to 14 days. I had to figure out what to do with this orchid.

In the meantime, I also wanted the orchid to bloom again. I consulted a very good friend of mine who truly has a green thumb, has a house full of blooming, beautiful orchids, and does a great job. She gave me some tips about how to make it bloom again. That looked like it was going to be a very time-consuming process for someone like me who’s traveling often and on the road. I said, “I’ll wait until a little bit later before I implement some of those strategies.”

In the meantime, with all of this aggressive traveling that I was doing, I had to figure out, how do I water this orchid and keep it alive until I come back? One of the times, I watered the orchid too much. I was trying to make that water last until I would return. When I got home, I saw the dreaded yellow leaves. The beautiful green leaves had turned yellow.

From all the research that I did, I knew that meant the orchid had got too much water. My poor orchid was drowning in water, and it was dying. When I touched those yellow leaves, they just fell off right into my hands. I had about two good leaves left and I said, “Let me see if I can salvage these two that are remaining.” I went on the next trip and said, “This time, I’m not going to overwater the plant. I’ll just make sure I give the plant a small amount of water.”

When I came back, the plant was stressed in the opposite direction and now it was starving. It was dying of thirst and shriveling up. I lost one of the two good leaves, and the one that was remaining was small, puny, and didn’t look like it was going to make it either. I was like, “What do I do now?” I wasn’t sure how to salvage this but I figured, “Let me work on it.” I have salvaged plants in the past, brought them back from near disaster, and I thought, “I could do it again. Let me figure it out, and let me work on it.”

In the meantime, the same wonderful first cousin of mine and his wife gave me another beautiful orchid plant and it was even more spectacular. It had more green plants in it. It was more diverse. I thought, “How nice. I will then cultivate both of these plants.” However, my husband took a look at the first plant and said, “This plant is gone. It has outlived its life. It’s time for it to go.” I said, “No, I don’t want it to go. I want to bring it back to health.” He said, “Time to go. You have a new plant now.”

Leadership Lessons From Orchid Care

He sent the plant on to plant heaven. I have the new plant that I’m cultivating and working on at the moment and so far, so good. The new plant is still alive. There are a lot of lessons in all of this about what to pay attention to and how to think about everything that happened. I know that in my case, when my circumstances changed, I needed to make some changes, too.

In leadership, when dealing with a new situation, a new set of circumstances, or an area where you lack knowledge and expertise, seek outside help. Click To Tweet

What I could have done with the plant when my circumstances changed, my friend, unfortunately, was recovering from surgery at the hospital. I didn’t want to do this first thing, which was, I could have sent the plant to her. It could have been in the plant hospital. She would have put it in with all of her plants and taken care of it. It probably would have done much better and she would have returned it to me in great shape. However, it was not a good time for me to do that because of her own circumstances.

The other thing I could have done was to get one of those time-released water bulbs and put that in the plant so that it would get water while I was gone, but not too much and not too little. I didn’t do any of those things. That’s why I’m telling you this story about the fate of the plant and what happened to the orchid. As far as leadership lessons, there are several that I want to share with you about this experience.

Number one, in leadership, when you are dealing with something new or a new set of circumstances, maybe where you don’t have knowledge and expertise, get outside help. Consult with knowledgeable people. You know I did get outside help. I studied books and talked to people. I did consult and get outside help. Number two, however, it is even more important which is to follow the expertise that your outside consultant shares with you. I followed some of it, but not all of it.

This reminds me of some of my clients. We’ll be talking about things, and I’ll make some recommendations for what their next steps might be. They might, for various reasons, just like I did with the orchid not implement whatever it is that we’re talking about. Later on, when the orchid dies, or the leaves turn yellow, or whatever is happening in their organization, they’ll come back, and I’ll say, “Did you implement what we talked about?” “No, we didn’t do that.” I had predicted upfront that this would be the outcome. They say, “We remember that.” Yet life gets in the way.

There are reasons sometimes why we don’t implement what we know to do and what we’ve heard about from our outside consultants and experts. In those cases, you can’t always do everything yourself because, as I mentioned, life gets in the way. That brings me to number three. It’s get hands-on help for whatever it is that you’re doing. In my case, that hands-on help could have been in the form of my friend who could have been babysitting the plant or someone else who could have babysat the plant while I was gone.

I could have got some tech help, which reminds me, metaphorically, think about the technology that we use, including artificial intelligence. That little water bulb would have been just a picture of that. I could have got some outside help to be my hands when I wasn’t there. You want to do the same thing in your organization. You want to get help from others who are in the organization and help from those who are outside the organization. This extends your reach and your ability to make a difference.

When circumstances change, you want to change strategies. In 2023, it was perfectly fine because I was in town most weeks and I could water the plant every week and giving it that small amount of water it needed. In 2024, my circumstances changed. I wasn’t available to water the plant every single week in the same way. That required new strategies.

In your business, when your circumstances change, look at your procedures or your processes and identify what also needs to alter what also needs to change. Make sure that you make the changes that go with the season you’re in within your business. The next item is important. We have to accept that all things come to an end. There is a natural cycle of life, and there’s an end date to everything.

We want to remember the good times that we had with those who took the journey with us up to this point and then learn to say goodbye. There is an art to saying goodbye. You take some time in saying goodbye when it’s real people and yet, you have to say goodbye. I don’t know if you remember, but in the first episode, when I talked about lessons from orchids and orchid care. I talked about how important when a flower was starting to fade to start taking that off from the orchid so that it didn’t take up a lot of extra nutrients from new growth that was coming behind it.

Some people in your organization are there with you for a limited season. When their season is up, let them go to another place where they can continue to add value. Click To Tweet

The same thing was true when I was trying to hold on to this plant and not let it go to plant heaven. A lot of care and effort would have been taken to bring it back to life. Was it possible to bring it back? Probably. Think about the resources involved when it had already served its time. When you think about that in your organization, there are some people who are there with you for a limited season.

When their season is up, let them go. Let them go to another place where they can continue to add value. You could grow, develop, and nurture them. However, the effort that it would take might away from the resources you have to grow and nurture those who are the perfect fit for where you are now. A lot of times, I’ve watched people take too long trying to resuscitate something that they ought to let go of in their organizations.

This siphons away energy from other parts of the organization. It causes those who are the perfect fit for where you are to become very frustrated and discouraged because they need your attention and cultivation to grow as well. We must learn to say goodbye and realize that we can hold on to some people too long. You don’t want to be in that position, which then hampers your entire organization. When you let go of those things that are taking up a lot of time, even though you could do it. Maybe it’s not the best use of your time.

That brings me to the last item which is to welcome and usher in the new. I’ll tell you my new orchid is bigger, fancier, and beautiful. I can devote my energy and time to the new orchid, giving it the proper lighting, proper water, and proper care. The new orchid is the orchid for this time and for this season in my life. Think about all of those things about getting outside, help, and consulting with knowledgeable people. Number two, following the expertise that you learn about. Number three, getting the hands-on help when you can’t do it yourself, delegate to others, bring in technology, or the AI that you might need.

Leadership Lessons From Ecclesiastes For Organizational Growth

Number four, when circumstances change, you change strategies. Don’t do the same thing. Number five, accept that all things have a season, and you have to let go and say goodbye sometimes. Number six, welcome and usher in the new, put your energy, food, sustenance, and resources into growing whatever that new thing is in your organization. As we close, I want to share a reading from Ecclesiastes 3. This is very relevant to what we’re talking about.

It says, starting with verse one, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, die, plant, and pluck up what is planted. A time to kill, heal, break down, build up, and weep. A time to laugh, mourn, dance, cast away stones, gather stones, embrace, and refrain from embracing. A time to gain, lose, keep, throw away, tear, sew, silence, speak, love, hate, war, and peace.” Let me ask you, what time is it in your organization? What is it that you need to do? What is it that makes the most sense for your current season and for ensuring that your organization grows, is sustained, and adds the value that you were intended to add? I look forward for the next episode.

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Creating Your Own Pathway To Leadership Success And Opportunity

I want to tell you about my book, Lead Yourself First!: The Senior Leader’s Guide to Engaging Your People for Greater Performance and Impact. This book is about playing the music that only you can play. Leadership is about more than following clever techniques, you are the instrument of your leadership. People are inspired by you and how you show up. In Chapter three of the book, which is called Forge Your Own Pathway, I share many experiences of creating a pathway forward when a pathway didn’t exist beforehand.

Sometimes that path is created through service, such as when I was taking a train every week from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, Germany, to volunteer in the Army hospital, the 97th General. I was volunteering once a week as a psychologist. Little did I know that this volunteer job would later become a full-time employment opportunity for me. It’s because of the volunteer service, I was in the right place at the right time when the doors opened up. The metaphor that I often use for creating opportunities is the ability to see possibilities where none are visible, and I call this creating blizzard food.

Imagine, just like in Colorado, this could happen at any time. There might be a raging blizzard outside. You haven’t gone to the grocery store yet. There’s no obvious food in the refrigerator or the pantry. Yet, if you look hard enough, there is hidden food, and you can use it to create delicious meals for yourself and also your guests. I encourage you, get your own copy of Lead Yourself First, forge your own pathway forward, create your own opportunities, be the instrument of your leadership, and create some delicious blizzard food.

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Creating A Positive, Profitable Workplace Culture

Did you know that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people and that you can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees, clients, and customers? You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating the culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.

Welcome and usher in the new. Click To Tweet

What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this is resonating with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture, and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it. Do keep in mind that that kind of legacy is something intentional. I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create that positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com.

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I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. If you are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-sized company, and you care about how your people are treated. Especially if you share our biblical values and you may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective.

You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps you’re going through change, or leading change. Maybe there’s a merger or an acquisition. Whatever you’re facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me. Give me a call so we can do a discovery meeting to see what’s going on.

Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949, extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.