Leading by Nature: la natura è il migliore dei coach
We are facing a multi-crisis on various levels, something unprecedented, encompassing mental health, biodiversity, inequality, agricultural collapse, and the breakdown of the planet’s vital systems. We are pushing the planet’s limits, threatening the survival of countless living beings, including ourselves. This is a unique moment in our civilization and existence, and time is not on our side.
As a coach, I help people grow. In this article, I aim to describe and share how we can help individuals become the leaders of the future, attuned to natural intelligence to act in harmony with the logic of life—the logic that nature itself teaches us. This logic can ensure our future on this planet.
As coaches, we must ask ourselves critical questions. Which system do we want to support? What are the ethical and systemic responsibilities of our work? We can be catalysts, fertilizers, challengers, or simply facilitators of other people’s growth.
Personally, I see those in my profession as individuals who help others awaken, become present, embrace authenticity, and rediscover the joy of being alive. We help them access and realize their dreams, reminding them of the miracle that, as human beings, they are. In doing so, we encourage reflection on who we are, what we want to contribute as individuals and leaders, and the kinds of organizations we want to create.
When we talk about developing skills, we are not merely trainers. We are also mirrors, enabling people to observe the consequences of their actions and the impact they have on others. We act (or can act) as a bridge between an individual and their intuitive and emotional intelligence.
A world in crisis and the evolving leader
If we are witnessing a multi-crisis at various levels, we must ask ourselves how it concerns us and what we can do to address it. If we are challenging the planet’s limits and jeopardizing the survival of living beings, including ourselves, finding ways to create a better future should be our top priority. We cannot close our eyes and hope the nightmare will end on its own.
We can support managers in becoming mindful leaders—leaders equipped to navigate the profound changes the world so urgently needs. How we live, work, and conduct business can influence every aspect of our lives. However, the awareness and capacity to sense this need for change inevitably begin with inner development.
From a coaching perspective—one that continuously evolves—the journey with a manager can typically be summarized into three phases.
We start with phase one. The foundation is HAVING (and thereby imposing) the role of a manager—a position often held by individuals due to inexperience or a lack of managerial training.
Often, we are brought in to facilitate the transition to phase two: DOING (and thus behaving) as a manager. This phase involves developing specific skills. While this stage can leave a mark, it often happens that managers grow in their roles but fail to express themselves authentically. In short, they struggle to act in alignment with their core values.
Therefore, it becomes essential to progress to phase three, where we help individuals access their essence, value systems, personality, and sense of purpose. We call this BEING a Leader.
The final stage is transformative. It requires looking in the mirror and asking, “Who am I?”. One of my coachees once told me he didn’t sleep for an entire weekend. He had always dreamed of becoming an executive by the age of 35 but had never asked himself how he wanted to exist in this world or how he wished to be remembered.
And that is the key question. How do we, as leaders, want to be remembered? Do we want to be known as those who destroyed the habitat we live in? Or as those who channeled their efforts into creating a better world?
The leader of the future and Regenerative Leadership
Not all of us are managers, but we can all be Leaders—at least of ourselves and our lives. I believe the leader of the future is someone who looks up, who is more aware of the path to take. I believe in two principles. First, the answers to the planet’s problems lie within us because the planet’s current state reflects our inability to manage ourselves. Second, the only form of higher intelligence resides in Nature. We can only save ourselves by starting to listen to it.
A school of thought aligned with learning from nature is Regenerative Leadership. Today, we focus on something we call sustainability, which stems from the recognition that we have a destructive impact on the planet. Sustainability seeks to minimize this harm as much as possible.
Regeneration, on the other hand, belongs to the opposite end of the spectrum from destruction. Regeneration is where life is created. A tree, for example, is a regenerative organism that affirms life by providing food, shelter, construction materials, erosion control, and even a small byproduct called oxygen—on which our lives depend. The tree symbolizes regeneration, giving back more life than it takes. Moreover, it communicates with other organisms, fostering collaboration and synergy.
Nature’s laws ensure the survival of symbiotic and life-affirming organisms. Humanity currently demonstrates neither of these traits. Our opportunity lies in creating organizations that are regenerative, generating more life than they consume and existing symbiotically with their ecosystems.
Regenerative leadership poses a fundamental question: How can we operate as a company while leaving the ecosystem (including people) in a more vital state than if we were absent? This is a revolutionary and essential concept—vital in every sense of the word. Regenerative leadership exists to take us to a place where we can survive and thrive by generating life.
How to create a regenerative culture in organizations
Transitioning to a regenerative culture involves offering experiences and exercises to open ourselves to life. These models can be applied to individual, group, and team coaching.
To cultivate a regenerative culture, three life-affirming characteristics—represented by the acronym DEE (Developmental, Emergent, and Evolutionary)—can be developed.
Developmental: This involves fostering a culture that celebrates learning. This dynamic is triggered by encouraging deep listening and dialogue, allowing for mistakes, authenticity, reflection, discussion, coaching conversations, and feedback. It invites us to open ourselves to the intelligence around us. A practical approach involves connecting with natural intelligence through outdoor experiences—a nature-based coaching culture.
Emergent: This entails balancing self-organization and leadership interventions, alternating between phases of expansion (freedom and responsibility) and convergence (management). In the divergent phase, respectful dialogue is essential, encouraging freedom of thought, responsibility, and diverse perspectives, including cross-sector exchanges. Tools like circular dialogue, methods for enhancing presence, and well-known group approaches like Future-Back, World Café, and Swarm Workshops help ensure broad engagement. Presence quality is crucial, with deep listening and moments of collective silence to allow new ideas to emerge.
Evolutionary: This is the phase where new awareness develops: understanding that we are part of an interconnected system and learning to see the whole rather than competing for individual parts. It is essential to manage the Ego and direct energy toward a larger purpose, even beyond our organization. Companies at this level collaborate with stakeholders and industry actors. Questions like “What is the creative potential of this organization?” awaken a more evolved sense of purpose. Tools like stakeholder mapping and Systemic Innovation methods expand our vision of who we are and what we can achieve.
A regenerative organization does not fear change but embraces and enables it. For each of these principles, a deep dialogue with ourselves and the surrounding ecosystem is essential. I find coaching to be a powerful tool to ignite this transformation. From manager to leader, we can become creators of new leadership and a regenerative culture that ensures a future for society and for all of us. I call it Leading by Nature.
