The Cranberry Lesson: Leadership Happens Long Before the Harvest

Yellow Point Cranberry Farm

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Yellow Point Cranberry Farm in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Like many people, I had seen the iconic pictures of cranberry bogs, fields flooded with water and bright red cranberries floating across the surface.

It’s a great picture. And it’s great marketing. But there’s a lot more to the story.

During our visit, I learned that for Yellow Point Cranberry Farm, the dramatic scene most of us associate with cranberry harvesting represents only about four days out of the entire year.

Four days. The other 361 days are about preparation, cultivation, maintenance, growth, problem-solving, and patience. And I couldn’t help but think: That’s leadership.

We tend to celebrate the harvest as well. In organizations, it looks different however we too celebrate the visible moments.

·       The promotion.

·       The successful project.

·       The record year.

·       The new client.

·       The award.

·       The strategic plan launch.

Those are the moments that get noticed. They’re the organizational equivalent of the beautiful cranberry bog filled with bright red berries.

But those moments don’t happen overnight.

Just as a cranberry harvest depends on years of cultivation, organizational success depends on the work that happens long before anyone sees the results. It takes time to grow something productive.

One of the things that surprised me most was learning that cranberry vines can take approximately five years before they become productive.

Think about that. Five years of growing before you can expect the kind of harvest everyone wants to see. There is no shortcut. The farmer can’t look at a two-year-old vine and say, “We really need more cranberries this year.”

Growth takes time. Leadership does too.

We sometimes expect new leaders to produce immediate results. We give someone a new title, a new responsibility, or a team and expect them to instantly know how to lead.

But leadership isn’t something that appears when a title is added to a business card. It has to be cultivated. It requires experience, feedback, relationships, mistakes, reflection, learning, and time.

You don’t plant a vine today and demand a harvest tomorrow. Why do we expect that of our people? The most important work may be the least visible.

Standing in the cranberry field, another correlation became apparent. I was struck by how low the vines actually are. They’re only about six to eight inches from the ground. They aren’t particularly impressive to look at. There isn’t a towering plant that announces, “Look at me. I’m going to produce thousands of cranberries someday.” The growth happens quietly.

Much of leadership development is the same way.

·       The conversation nobody else hears.

·       The coaching session.

·       The difficult feedback.

·       The employee who is given another opportunity after making a mistake.

·       The leader who learns to listen instead of immediately solving.

·       The team that spends time building trust before it desperately needs it.

Those things don’t make for dramatic photographs but they are the foundation of the harvest.

Then comes the equipment. Of course, eventually there has to be a harvest. And when that time comes, it isn’t accomplished by simply walking into the field and picking cranberries one by one. There is equipment, expertise, timing, coordination, and a process designed specifically for the job.

That made me think about another important leadership lesson:

Good intentions aren’t enough.

Organizations need systems and processes that support the outcomes they want.

·       A great leader working inside a poorly designed system will become frustrated.

·       A talented team without clear expectations will struggle.

·       A strategic plan without accountability becomes a document on a shelf.

Leadership isn’t simply about having good people. It’s about creating the conditions that allow good people to succeed.

Don’t confuse the harvest with the work. This may be the biggest lesson I took away from the farm. We often look at successful people and successful organizations and see the “harvest.”  

·       We see the award.

·       We see the growth.

·       We see the finished product.

·       We see the leader confidently standing at the front of the room.

We don’t always see the years of work that came before it.

·       The early mornings.

·       The setbacks.

·       The decisions that didn’t work.

·       The conversations that were uncomfortable.

·       The skills that had to be developed.

·       The relationships that had to be built.

·       The patience required to keep investing when the results weren’t yet visible.

I interviewed Stratton Leopold for my book, That Would Have Been Nice to Know: Advice From Those Who Made Successful Career Transitions. Stratton is a successful movie producer (Ever watched Mission Impossible 3? Yes, it is one of his over 60 movies) and he owns a family ice cream shop, Leopold's. He stated, “Everyone says that they want to be me now, but they don't see nor want to make the tough sacrifices and learn the lessons I had to learn.”

The harvest is visible. The cultivation is not. And yet, the cultivation is what makes the harvest possible.

What are you cultivating? As leaders, perhaps we should spend a little less time asking, “Where are the results?”

And spend more time asking:

·       What are we cultivating?

·       Are we giving our people enough time and support to grow?

·       Are we building the relationships and trust our future success will require?

·       Are our processes helping people succeed or getting in their way?

·       Are we investing in capabilities that may not produce immediate results?

·       Are we celebrating the people doing the work before the results become visible?

Sometimes the most important leadership work doesn’t look like progress. It looks like preparation and patience. It looks like small improvements repeated over time. It looks like investing in people who may not be ready today but will be five years from now.

And then, one day, the harvest comes. Everyone sees the cranberries. Everyone celebrates the results. But the leader understands something different.

The harvest was never the whole story.

The real story was everything that happened before anyone could see it. And perhaps that’s one of the most important lessons of leadership:

Cultivate well. Be patient. Build the right conditions. Invest in your people.

Because great results rarely happen suddenly. They are grown.

Keep cultivating!

Dr. Julie Olsen