Pat Maher is the CEO of Atkins Ranch, the New Zealand-based collective of over 100 family farms producing 100% grass-fed, pasture-raised lamb for premium markets in the U.S. and Canada. Under his leadership, the company champions regenerative agriculture with third-party verification that promotes soil and ecosystem health while strengthening animal welfare and farm viability. Maher focuses on building high standards […]
Julie Brams is an Earth-centered psychotherapist, meditation teacher, and author of The Nature Embedded Mind: How the Way We Think Can Heal Our Planet and Ourselves. Her work sits at the intersection of psychology, ecology, and social justice, exploring how our deep sense of separation from nature affects both personal well-being and collective health. Drawing from clinical practice, scientific research, […]
Kelly Wendorf is a leadership teacher, coach, and author of Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living. Drawing on indigenous teachings, neuroscience, and the wisdom of horses, she offers a nature-based approach to leadership that fosters connection, care, and resilience. Wendorf guides leaders—whether in workplaces, families, or communities—to “lead from behind,” creating safety, presence, and […]
The final exercise of Leadership Step By Step! For this last exercise, we had to support and manage a person that we lead to doing a task for us. The steps were: I decided to do this exercise with someone whom I had a lot of contact with so I could give myself the highest chances of success: my daughter […]
8/16/25 Update: I totally forgot that I didn’t post all my leadership exercises! Just a couple left to go! This week, the exercise was to do the exact same exercise as last week, but now with confidence! In short, get more practice leading more people. If you need a reminder, the process is: I was able to do the exercise […]
For this week in Leadership, the exercise of the week was to lead others using empathy. The process was as follows (modified slightly for how I did it): I found this exercise to be REALLY challenging to start doing. I spent a lot of time thinking about the implications of doing the exercise: is it manipulative? Is there a reason […]
Exercise 18 of Leadership Step By Step was to have another 10 conversations with a goal of making people feel understood. Again, a script was provided and the short version is: The idea with this script is that you ask someone about their passion, then give them the space to delve into their passion and really explore what it is […]
For exercise 17 of Leadership Step By Step, I had to have 10 conversations using a script designed to encourage meaningful connection with others. In short, the conversation goes as follows: I found the formula to be simple and yet very effective! Asking someone about what they enjoy doing is great, but often the conversation just ends there with a […]
Exercise 16 of Leadership Step By Step was probably the most challenging one I’ve had so far. For this exercise, I had to do the exact same thing as in exercise 15, but now with something more difficult. Going through The Model and The Method itself was easy enough, but I found the actual new behaviors to be really difficult, […]
This week’s exercise from Leadership Step By Step was to build on the previous exercise (“The Model”) and to try to influence your own environment, beliefs, and emotions in order to elicit a rewarding feeling from something that you’d like to improve at, but haven’t been able to. For this exercise, Josh asked us to form groups to brainstorm new […]