The Leadership Cycle of the Sago Palm: What Executives Can Learn from a Plant That Waits 30 Years to Bloom by Carol Kaemmerer
While spending time on Hawaii's Big Island, I found myself drawn, day after day, to a group of Sago Palms. Not true palms, but cycads, these ancient plants have been thriving since the time of dinosaurs. And they do it on their own terms. Against a backdrop of volcanic rock, their tightly furled fronds slowly begin to emerge, each day revealing just a bit more. Watching them unfurl became an unexpected meditation on my own journey—and the journeys of the executive leaders I serve.
The Sago Palm grows deliberately. It produces only one flush of new leaves a year and can take decades— sometimes 30 years or more—to reach reproductive maturity. It does not rush. It does not perform for applause. And yet when the time is right, it transforms. This growth cycle speaks volumes to anyone who has experienced the ache of career loss: the job that ends unexpectedly, the title that slips away, the retirement that comes too soon—or worse, too quietly. But here’s the truth: the season of loss does not define the whole story. The Sago Palm shows us that growth doesn’t end with loss—it often begins there.
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