The Beekeeper

CHAPTER 2Be Fulfilled

The bee…gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field and transforms and digests it by a power of its own.

—Adapted from Leonardo da Vinci

“Hello, this is Catherine,” I answered the phone. Air pods in and luggage in tow, I was rushing through the chaos of the airport.

The call was from a business broker inquiring about franchising my essential oil business. I respectfully told the broker we were not interested at this time but was grateful for the inquiry.

Orlando was the third city I had traveled to that month. My first stop was Denver, where I helped a management team of 40 sales and marketing managers. I was looking forward to helping them build better relationships within their teams and begin a cultural transformation to attract and retain top talent. The recent mass attrition occurring across many companies had placed a renewed focus on how managers and leaders are a catalyst to a strong organizational culture. A common theme emerged across many organizations of trying to find out how to build strong teams while not losing sight of organizational traditions that have been a historic driver of growth.

It was then off to New Jersey, where an executive leadership team of a Fortune 500 company was struggling to break down silos where fixed mindsets were encouraging overuse of traditions. The goal was to learn how to effectively ...