Landslide Leadership: Growing Through Change

This week marked a milestone in our family—one of ours officially flew the coop and started college. I managed to keep it together until the plane lifted off from Dallas Love Field and “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac came through my headphones. You know the one:

Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’

’Cause I’ve built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I’m gettin’ older too.

Not exactly the best song to listen to while leaving your firstborn behind.

We are not “letting go” of our boy. We are letting him grow. There’s a big difference. I believe he’ll go further, faster, and higher than we ever did. Environments matter, and I’d like to believe we gave him a strong one to launch from. A good friend told me, “Healthy birds leave the nest. You did your job.” That helped me.

As you might suspect, this situation like so many more before it also made me reflect on leadership. Isn’t this the very work we do? Helping others discover their wings, then encouraging them to fly even higher than we could? I think of Robben Mathews, our legendary Team Leader and mentor, who once teared up as she told us that she could no longer teach us at the level we needed and that we had to find others to take us further. That moment of humility and grace was powerful. She shifted from parental teacher to wise mentor, and in doing so, gave us permission to go grow.

That’s leadership at its finest. Not holding people back, not keeping them dependent. Equip them to soar.

And here’s the other gift: these moments grow us too. They force us to confront change, to let go of patterns and routines that may no longer serve us, and to step boldly into new seasons.

Time does make us bolder. And yes, we’re all getting older. Thank you, Stevie Nicks, for the reminder.

-Andy Peters