5 | A Gardener's Mindset

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Welcome back!

One of the first questions I ever asked when it came to building unshakable teams, specifically through the lens of camaraderie, was this:

What’s the aim?

How do we know what success looks like when it comes to camaraderie?

Will there ever be a point when we can say "we did it"?

And that’s what we’re going to answer today.

What is success when it comes to this pursuit of camaraderie.

How do we as leaders know if we've built camaraderie?

Here's a better question:

"are we heading in the right direction"

Notice how different that is to "Have we arrived yet?"

The first question is process driven, point to the reality that camaraderie is never an end point to aim for,

rather a direction to commit to for a lifetime.

And here's why: camaraderie will never be done.

In approaching building camaraderie, a gardener's mindset is better than a painter's mindset in this conversation.

Gardeners live in rhythms of growth that ebb and flow, but a gardener is never "done."

Painters, however, live from one moment of completion to another. They're commissioned for a project and they go work on that project until it's done. Builders of camaraderie are more like gardeners—their work, their effort, is never finished, and it's never about being finished. It's more about growing and cultivating from one season to the next season and embracing the variables along the way. Different flowers are planted in different seasons. Different tasks are required based on whether you're in a planting, pruning, harvesting, or winter season.

As builders of camaraderie, with a gardener's mindset—more process-driven rather than results-driven—we can first approach building camaraderie with the joy of the process, the excitement of being creative, seeing what grows, what doesn't grow, adjusting to the seasons we're in, and creating something beautiful. Something that when others walk in, they'll take a breath, relax a bit, and actually enjoy being there.

We're not building a masterpiece painting that when people walk in takes over all the attention with awe and recognition. No, camaraderie, like a garden, is more subtle. It creates a path for people to walk in and feel something that unlocks creativity, imagination, conversation, connection, reflection, peace. People won't join your team or walk into your home or office and say "wow—that camaraderie you've painted is really amazing." No, instead they'll walk in and instantly relax, smile, open up, feel safe, feel unlocked, feel they can dream, be known, be inspired, find value in the work they do with you. It's one of those things that is so subtle most will possibly recognize how beautiful it was after they leave. But that's how humbling building a culture of camaraderie is. You won't get credit for it. That won't be the sign you'll receive to let you know you've succeeded. You'll know you've succeeded when you're standing in a doorway and looking at a collective group of people that have become a true team.

That's camaraderie.

You'll know it wasn't built in a day. It was built in small, tiny moments that you, as the leader, helped to cultivate. You planted, you watered, you pruned, you made small decisions over time to create a space.

So for today, as you move forward with your day, I want you to visualize and think about what it would feel like, let's say a year down the road, you've put in small moments of daily effort to create camaraderie in your family, your community, and your team. Maybe no one even notices. The word camaraderie is just something you and I know. But you see they feel it. They feel strong, growing relationships, they feel a sense of mission, of purpose, of belonging. We'll get into the practicals of this soon, but for now, take a few minutes and get excited. This is your life. Your relationships. Your teams. Gain VISION—which all that is is just seeing it. See the people. The relationships. The work. The purpose. See it and get excited.

This is your garden.

YOU get to create, and change, and design it how you want to.

I'll leave you with that.

That's all for today. I'll see you soon.