Community Garden Leadership

Think back to a time where you worked with someone you would consider an amazing leader and ask yourself, what made this person an effective leader? Did they go out of their way to make everyone on the team feel appreciated? Did you feel like communication was always clear and timely? Did you understand the team’s main objective and had the freedom to take ownership of your contributions towards that goal?

Effective community garden leaders bring people together to achieve a shared goal. They inspire leadership in others by modeling responsibility, vulnerability, accountability and authenticity, which requires clear and consistent communication, strategy and clearly defined goals (Gulliver, 2023). However, no one approach to leadership is fail-proof, everyone has strengths and weaknesses in leadership predetermined by one’s innate characteristics. Once aware of these strengths and weaknesses, leaders can identify and value leadership qualities in others and become more inclined to ask for help and create more inclusive leadership opportunities. 

Listed below are common leadership characteristics to serve as a starting place for your reflection. You will explore and reflect on characteristics that you identify with most in Assignment 1 for this section. 

By leveraging authentic leadership characteristics, garden leaders exude confidence and trustworthiness to others.