Every Sunday morning we’d visit Gerry. My Grandfather.
In the kitchen, always waiting for my brother and me
was a chocolate Freddo Frog and
a little lemonade glass turned upside down over a 5c piece.
It was for us to spend on whatever we liked at Aunty Elsie’s Milk Bar.
As much as I loved the weekly 2-finger KitKat
and my brother the Superman Supacomic,
it is what we learned along the way that stays with me.
And I want to share with you in this first Leadership Up Close.
We would walk different ways to Aunty Elsie’s, past all his favourite front gardens.
Some were stand outs, but there was something to be found in each and every one of them.
Flowers, a tree, the changes each season, and even garden gnomes.
What I loved most, next to one garden gnome, was a miniature windmill.
He said it was from a place called Holland.
I found it a thrilling adventure and still do. You never know what you’ll see.
And yet, even though you look it doesn’t mean you’ll see. I had never seen these beautiful flowers until recently. But I have walked past this red brick wall many times!
My thinking for leaders is this… if you think of each person you work with as a garden, chances are you’ll notice some ‘beautiful flowers’ you’ve never seen before.
