About the Guide
Leadership wisdom earned in the field, not just studied from the sidelines.
For more than four decades, I've worked alongside leaders—from first-time supervisors to senior executives—trying to understand what helps people, teams and organizations grow.
I didn't begin that journey as a leadership expert.
I began at UPS, where I held a number of jobs before moving into management.
And that's where I first discovered how much I didn't know about leadership.
Go for respect, not affection
UPS promoted its managers from within. When I moved into supervision, I found myself responsible for people I had worked beside.
They weren't simply employees. They were coworkers. Some were friends.
The title changed overnight. The relationships did too.
I wanted to succeed. I wanted the operation to succeed. And, if I'm truthful, I wanted the people I supervised to still like me.
I learned quickly that knowing the operation and knowing how to lead people were very different things.
One of the people who saw me struggling was Don Karns, a manager who became an important mentor in my life.
Don gave me five words I've carried with me ever since:
“Go for respect, not affection.”
I wasn't ready yet.
Don's advice stayed with me. But understanding something and living it are two different things.
I continued to advance at UPS, eventually becoming Center Manager for the Toledo East delivery operation. I knew how to drive results. I knew the numbers. And I could be a hard-ass supervisor when the numbers weren't where they needed to be.
What I hadn't learned was how to lead without carrying all that pressure home with me—or passing some of it along to the people around me.
The hours were ungodly. The emotional strain became unsustainable. I eventually left UPS.
Don had pointed me toward a better way. I simply hadn't grown into it yet.
I knew how to get results. What I didn't know was whether there was a better way to get them—a way that didn't require becoming the kind of boss I never intended to be.
So I began looking.
I've been looking ever since.
Leaving UPS didn't end my interest in leadership. It deepened it.
I wanted to understand what made some leaders worth following while others diminished the people around them. Why some teams became stronger under pressure while others fractured. How you could hold people accountable without losing trust. And why some organizations seemed to bring out the best in people while others slowly wore them down.
Those questions followed me through more than four decades of work with leaders and organizations.
Corporate
Government
Nonprofit
International
Clients
Workshop Participants
My Consulting Partners
WHERE I LOOKED
PEOPLE WHO SHAPED MY THINKING
Don Karns
Tom Peters
Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner
W. Edwards Deming
Peter Drucker
Warren Bennis
Peter Block
Some of my best teachers never wrote a leadership book.
WHAT I FOUND
Leadership development starts with
self-development
The leader goes first.
What I've come to believe.
Organizations aren't machines. People aren't components.
People grow. Leaders grow. Teams grow. Organizations grow. And healthy growth requires the right conditions.
After more than four decades of working with leaders, I've come to believe that lasting leadership development begins with the person doing the leading. Before we can strengthen a team or change an organization, we have to be willing to look at ourselves—our values, habits, assumptions, relationships and the effect we have on others.
That's why the leader goes first.
SELF → TEAM → ORGANIZATION
And the work always leads us back to self.
Why an orchard?
I spent much of my career in a world where organizations were often treated like machines—structures, systems, processes and metrics to be engineered and controlled.. Those things matter. But organizations are also living communities of people.
An orchard gave me a different way to think about leadership. Healthy growth depends on the conditions we create: the soil we cultivate, the roots that hold us steady, what we prune, what we nurture, and what we ultimately harvest.
The metaphor isn't the method. It's a way to see the work more clearly.
Leadership isn't installed. It's grown.
Still learning.
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have often reminded me that the best leaders are the best learners. I believe that more strongly today than ever.
AI, changing workplaces, economic uncertainty and relentless pressure are changing the context of leadership. But the work remains profoundly human.
I’m still reading, listening, experimenting and asking questions. And occasionally discovering that something I was quite certain about needs another look.
Don Karns had a wonderfully simple instruction for moments like that: "Go Look."
Stories from the Orchard
Much of what I know about leadership came from people and moments I still remember decades later. Some lessons came from remarkable leaders. Others came from difficult ones. And more than a few came from mistakes—often my own.
I tell these stories because leadership becomes more useful when we can see ourselves in it.
Let's grow something worthwhile.