Leaders are not buffeted about by circumstance. They make what is into what might be, transforming challenging situations by means of courage and insight.

As a good gardener prepares the soil, so a wise leader creates an environment that promotes community. ... community involves a common place, a common time, and a common purpose. Just getting people in the same place at the same time does not produce a team. Community requires a common vision.

Micromanaging erodes people's confidence, making them overly dependennt on their leaders. Well-meaning leaders inadvertently sabotage their teams by rushing to the rescue and offering too much help. A leader needs to balance assistance with wu wei, backing off long enough to let people learn from their mistakes and develop competence.

Wise leaders know that if an individual doesn't count, the institution doesn't count for much either. Put mathematically, if the individual is a zero, together a lot of zeros add up to a whole lot of nothing.

To be at peace in any endeavour, we must release our need to control the outcome.

Remember the importance of small actions. They're the building blocks in the architecture of your life, the quiet victories you win for yourself each day.

Our greatest natural resources are our hearts and minds, together with those of the people around us.

Regular meditation not only restores our inner harmony and vital energy, but provides us with an actual experience of the peace we seek.

Any group has a sense of who it is and what is values, but this sense often remains beneath the surface. A wise leader can discern these unspoken beliefs and articulate them.

Gardening can become a spiritual exercise, teaching us discernment as we eliminate the weeds from our lives, giving what we value room to grow.