Co-Active Leadership, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

5

Co-Active Leader Within

Many years ago Karen was planting a summer garden with her six-year-old niece, Christin. They began with the marigolds, tucking the sharp, pointy seeds into the rich brown soil. Karen’s job was to place the seeds in little mounds of earth and make sure that the rows were straight. Christin was to come along behind her, placing a seed packet with its picture of bright orange flowers onto a Popsicle stick at the end of each row.

After a time, Karen noticed that Christin had placed the packets with the pictures facing inward toward the newly planted marigolds. “Christin,” she said, “honey, you need to turn the picture around so that we can see what we’ve planted when we look out at our garden.” “Oh no, Auntie K,” Christin ...