Developing leadership skills is essential to a healthy and balanced work environment. Many times, you will notice resistance from others around you due to personal habits and preference. So, how do you counteract resistance to leadership development and change perspective?

Sometimes, it can be as simple as planting seeds – no, not literally planting seeds! Think of a seed as an idea or story used for subconscious relevancy and planting as the action of indirectly presenting this idea. Don’t underestimate how storytelling can impact an individual’s life.

In our experience with our team here at Genesa Corp., planting seeds has been one of the most effective ways of shifting perspective and enforcing leadership development. Although we are constantly developing our leadership skills within the office, it doesn’t mean that we don’t come across resistance. Easing into the idea of personal leadership development means stepping out of your comfort zone, it means being vulnerable, it means setting an example – so naturally, you will experience opposition to this.

So, how so we plant seeds?

During the first month of re-branding to Genesa Corp., we told our team that every Monday we are going to send out a quote, everyone must reply with their immediate reaction and then we will use this quote as a base for discussion during our weekly team meeting. Many replies started out as one word answers, at times there were no replies. Weekly discussions? They started out with the same few people opening up, and some staying quiet. But what did this eventually lead to? After a few weeks, discussions started becoming more open – those who didn’t speak up at the beginning began relating quotes to personal experiences; they started stepping out of their comfort zone. This allowed the team a safe space for storytelling, which lead to vulnerability and relationship building.

Share your ideas with us for how you plant leadership seeds!

Here are 20 quotes on leadership to start:

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   “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.” -Mother Teresa

2. “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” -Jimmy Dean

3. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

4. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevenson

5. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” -Ayn Rand

6. “If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent Van Gogh

7. “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”  John C. Maxwell

8. “There is a difference between being a leader and being a boss. Both are based on authority. A boss demands blind obedience; a leader earns his authority through understanding and trust.”  Klaus Balkenhol

9. “Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” — Patrick Lencioni

10. “A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others so that they may have the strength to stand on their own.” — Beth Revis

11. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

12. “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”  – Jack Welch, former GE chairman and CEO

13. “Great leaders harness personal courage, capture the hearts and minds of others and empower new leaders to make the world a better place.” – Maxine Driscoll, Founder Think Strategic

14. A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. – Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady, USA

15. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” —Ken Blanchard

16. “Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work.” — Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970, Professional football coach

17. “The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.” — John C Maxwell: The 17th Irrefutable Laws of Teamwork (2001, 185)

18. “My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office he once asked me, does you staff carry on remarkable well without you?” — Martha Peak, Group Editor, AMA Magazines, Management Review, October 1992

19. “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” James Humes

20. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” -Lao Tzu