How to Be a Better Steward

Leadership for the planet and soul

Stewarding our little lawn from grass to grasses

If you’re a subscriber, this Stack will land in your inbox two days after Earth Day, a day that I associate with the word stewardship.

I love this word. It’s like leading, steering, and shepherding all wrapped up into one. My favorite part of the Merriam-Webster definition is: “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.”

Although stewardship applies to many aspects of our lives, I associate it first and foremost with taking care of our planet. It calls up a proverb that is largely attributed to Indigenous peoples:

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

In other words, we have a duty to keep it in pristine shape.

While the U.S. government not only abdicates its stewardship of the Earth but actively rebuffs it by bringing back coal and reversing EPA regulations intended to make the planet cleaner and more habitable, it is up to us to take our stewardship of the land more seriously. More on that later. First, let’s break this fabulous word down in ways that can enhance our HI.

The Three Keys to Stewardship

We can care for the Earth, our workplaces, homes, and lives in general by practicing three main aspects of stewardship:

1.Sustainability - We need to make sure our planet, workplaces, and families can operate and thrive without burning out. This requires acknowledging that many resources — e.g. time, materials, and energy — are finite, and becoming familiar with renewable ones. It also requires a shift from focusing on short-term goals into long-term thinking.

The main practice with sustainability lies in constantly asking, and then what?

…followed by designing procedures that enable operations to continue ethically. For example, finding passionate employees for a new workforce who are willing to put in 55 hours a week may feel like a coup, but after a few months or a year, then what? When they start to mess up or break down due to exhaustion, then what? Employee sustainability is successful when safeguards such as adequate vacation time, PTO (personal time off), and MHD (mental health days) are included.

2.Responsibility - Every action causes a reaction. Successful stewardship requires that we explore our effect on those with whom we interact, and acknowledge the impact of our actions on other people and initiatives.

The main question of responsibility is to keep asking: what is the impact?

A friend recently shared an inner conflict. She knew it was her job to steward her daughter’s college application process. But loading her daughter up with activities designed to impress admissions was making her daughter tired and resentful. My friend realized her stewardship of the process might need to shift. Together she and her daughter decided what her daughter was and wasn’t willing to do to get into a good school.

3.Interdependence - Stewardship requires that we melt the hyper-individualism promoted in our culture and embrace how truly interconnected and dependent we are on one another. Thinking sustainably and taking responsibility should lead to an awareness of our interrelatedness, which in turn raises …

the questions of interdependence: how will the effects of this action go beyond me, my wants, my needs?

Sometimes the smallest acts of kindness have effects far beyond our awareness. In an earlier Stack on The Encounter, I wrote about a passerby whose smile changed my entire mood and was so impactful that I’ve thought about it for years (and then passed it on to you, dear readers).

Ecologically speaking, my favorite positive example of interdependence began in 1995 when grey wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone, leading to a phenomenon known as a trophic cascade (another delicious term). The wolves started hunting the deer, which had been eating up all the vegetation. With fewer consumers, the vegetation started to grow back. It attracted more birds and insects, as well as beavers which added natural dams to the waterways. The new, abundant plant roots stabilized the riverbanks. The ecology of the park was vastly improved.

These three aspects of stewardship —sustainability, responsibility, and interdependence — are held in an umbrella of ethics: if an action does not have a moral compass, it is not stewardship.

Here is an invite to contemplate your stewardship:

As a leader: How are you stewarding your business, your staff, your own leadership? A leader who sets aside the time to consciously and effectively steward their workforce sets the tone for the entire organization, and as a result workers will unconsciously be inspired to do better.

As a family/community member: How are you stewarding your family and friends? Pets count ⬇️

(But we all know Vanna White stewards us)

As a person: How are you stewarding yourself into better alignment with your health and highest goals?

Are you regularly checking on the impact of your actions and course correcting?

Are you working exploring your rightful place in community?

Back to the Land

And finally, what actions are you currently taking to steward the Earth in ways that pay that debt to our children? There are so many big and small ways to do this. If you can’t replace your grass lawn to save water, install solar panels, or avoid using single-use plastics, you can donate to or volunteer with one or more of the organizations below. (I’ve culled these as the top five, but there are many, many others.)

1. The Nature Conservancy (TNC)

A global nonprofit dedicated to conserving lands and waters.

2. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

WWF focuses on wilderness preservation and reducing human impact on the environment.

3. Sierra Club

One of the oldest environmental organizations in the U.S., Sierra Club engages in political advocacy, promotes sustainable energy, and organizes outdoor recreation activities.

4. National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

NWF focuses on protecting wildlife and habitats through education and policy advocacy.

5. Surfrider Foundation

The Surfrider Foundation is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's ocean, waves, and beaches.

6. Or choose from many others on this list (thanks to Wikipedia)