I learned a new term this week in my leadership class, Biotic Potential.

While this is defined ecologically as “the maximum growth capacity” it points to the time it takes for an organism to double in size with unrestricted growth. I read a book decades ago that this reminds me of, Tend Your Own Garden First, a book discussing tending to the responsibility of raising our children as priority. This translates over to any area of leadership. As leaders, we must cultivate the most enriching and nourishing environment to allow our followers to grow and thrive in. We are all leaders in some capacity. Even my three-year-old grandson is a leader to his little brother, who will soon be a leader to the newest little brother.

What I did not know is that this is also a well-known phrase by Voltaire. While I do truly believe we must tend to ourselves and what is closest to us, I agree too with this article’s perspective. “Cultivate your own garden; this is the place where your heart is. But don’t neglect the wider world. It, too, needs your attention. Gates and walls can only offer limited security. Sometimes, a person must leave its confines unless it becomes a prison. The goodness found in a garden can be sustained only if the environment surrounding it is also good.”

So, as leaders, we must lead ourselves first.

We must tend to our “own”.

And we must enrich the soil which we touch.