When most of us think of leadership, we imagine boardrooms, strategy sessions, or quarterly reports. Rarely do we think about soil, crop rotation, or cattle grazing. Yet the principles of regenerative agriculture – an approach to farming that restores ecosystems while producing food – offer profound lessons for leaders who want to build organizations that thrive for generations.
On a recent visit to Root Shoot Malting and Spirits in Loveland, Colorado, we saw this truth up close. Root Shoot isn’t just a farm. It’s a fifth-generation family business that has built its identity around five pillars of regenerative farming: minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing diversity, keeping living roots in the soil, keeping the soil covered, and integrating livestock.
As Heyward Gualandi, Sales Director at Root Shoot, put it: “We like to say that we don’t just grow grains; we grow soil and community.” That philosophy goes beyond agriculture. It offers a roadmap for how today’s leaders can steward their organizations in ways that produce resilience, innovation, and impact that lasts.
Pillar One: Minimize Disturbance
In farming, minimizing disturbance means practicing no-till methods… planting directly into the soil without constant plowing or turning. This preserves the delicate ecosystem of microbes, roots, and nutrients that make soil fertile.
In leadership, minimizing disturbance can mean resisting the temptation to reorganize or overhaul systems every time there’s a challenge. Constant disruption erodes trust and weakens culture. Instead, effective leaders know when to step back and allow healthy processes to do their work.
A recent Deloitte survey found that 77% of employees cite stability as one of the top factors influencing their engagement and productivity. Leaders who minimize unnecessary disturbance provide the conditions where trust and growth can take root.
Pillar Two: Maximize Diversity
On the farm, diversity means rotating crops and planting cover crops to avoid depletion and disease. It also means integrating different plants and animals into the same ecosystem so they can support one another.
In organizations, diversity of people, ideas, and experiences builds resilience. Homogeneity can lead to blind spots, stagnation, and vulnerability to disruption. Diverse teams, on the other hand, consistently outperform homogeneous ones in innovation and problem-solving.
A McKinsey study found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 25% more likely to outperform on profitability, while those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity were 36% more likely to outperform. Just as farms thrive with biodiversity, organizations thrive when leaders intentionally cultivate varied voices and perspectives.
Pillar Three: Keep Living Roots in the Soil
Living roots in the soil help maintain fertility, prevent erosion, and keep ecosystems active year-round.
For leaders, “living roots” represent ongoing connections to values, purpose, and people. Organizations that lose touch with their roots—why they exist, who they serve, what they value—risk becoming transactional and brittle.
One Root Shoot practice that illustrates this principle is planting winter barley, which keeps roots alive in the soil through cold months. Similarly, leaders can plant “living roots” in their organizations by maintaining rituals, storytelling, and core values that sustain the culture even during seasons of challenge or change.
Pillar Four: Keep the Soil Covered
In regenerative farming, keeping soil covered—whether through cover crops or crop residue—protects against erosion, retains moisture, and builds long-term fertility.
In leadership, keeping “soil covered” means protecting the culture and the people who make up an organization. This can look like shielding staff from unnecessary external pressures, investing in wellness, and creating policies that safeguard work-life balance.
As Heyward observed during our conversation: “We won’t sacrifice the long-term health of the planet in order to turn a profit this year.” Imagine if more leaders thought that way about their people. Protecting employees’ well-being today is the surest way to cultivate productivity and loyalty tomorrow.
Pillar Five: Integrate Livestock
On the farm, livestock aren’t separate from the soil; they’re integrated into it. Cattle grazing cover crops provide natural fertilizer, encourage growth, and close the loop of the ecosystem.
In business, “integrating livestock” can be a metaphor for breaking down silos and integrating parts of the system that are often kept apart. Marketing should talk to operations. Finance should engage with HR. Leaders should stay connected to the frontline.
Integration keeps systems healthy and responsive. Leaders who silo functions or isolate decision-making miss opportunities for synergy and adaptability.
The Long View: Generations, Not Quarters
Perhaps the most profound leadership lesson from Root Shoot is its long-term perspective. As Heyward explained: “Our thinking is more about the next five generations of farmers than the next five quarters of profit.”
In a business environment dominated by quarterly earnings and rapid turnarounds, this is a radical way of thinking. And yet, it’s exactly what regenerative leadership requires.
Just as soil takes years to rebuild, cultures and organizations take years to mature. Short-term extraction—whether of resources, people, or profits—may yield temporary results but depletes the foundation for the future. Leaders who take the long view build organizations that endure.
Why This Matters for Leaders Today
The parallels between regenerative farming and leadership aren’t just poetic; they’re practical. Leaders across industries are facing uncertainty, burnout, and the urgent need to create sustainable systems. Regenerative practices offer a framework for doing just that.
- Minimize disturbance: Avoid unnecessary upheaval; trust healthy systems.
- Maximize diversity: Build teams that are resilient and creative.
- Keep living roots: Stay grounded in values and purpose.
- Keep the soil covered: Protect people and culture from erosion.
- Integrate livestock: Break down silos and keep the ecosystem whole.
These are not quick fixes. They are practices that, like farming, require patience, humility, and persistence. But the payoff is lasting.
Closing Reflections
Standing in the fields of Root Shoot, we were struck by how leadership lessons can emerge in the most unexpected places. Farming and business may seem worlds apart, but both are about stewardship… of soil, of people, of communities, of futures yet to come.
Regenerative leadership invites us to move beyond short-term fixes and buzzwords and into practices that restore, sustain, and multiply. Just as healthy soil grows strong crops, healthy leadership grows thriving organizations.
And perhaps the most important reminder of all: leadership, like farming, is less about extraction and more about cultivation.
Key Takeaways for Leaders
- Think long-term: prioritize legacy over quarterly wins.
- Protect your culture: shield and nurture the ecosystem of your people.
- Diversity equals resilience: integrate multiple perspectives into your system.
- Stay rooted in values and purpose, especially during hard seasons.
- Break down silos: integration keeps organizations adaptable.
Sources
- Deloitte. (2020). Global Human Capital Trends.
- McKinsey & Company. (2020). Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters.
- Regeneration International. (2023). Principles of Regenerative Agriculture.