The Lavender Harvest Doesn't Lie

It’s harvest week here at my lavender farm in NJ. ☀️

The lavender doesn’t care that May and June were chaotic, or that I worked weekends. It only shows me what got planted—and when.

Midyear reflections work the same way.

Maybe you just closed out the hardest-working six months of your career, but the results don’t match the effort. More hours than ever. A calendar with no white space to think. Numbers that are… fine. But not nearly as strong as you expected - and definitely not reflective of how much you put in.

LEADERSHIP REFRAME

Farming has been one of the greatest leadership schools of my life.

The field has taught me that a disappointing harvest is rarely a July problem. It’s usually an April problem—or even a problem from the year before. The rows I’m cutting this week were shaped months ago by what I planted, what I pruned, what I neglected, and what I kept telling myself I’d get to later.

The leading indicators in spring predicted the lavender yield in summer.

A field (like a business) does not respond to guilt or longer hours. It responds to better conditions which are sometimes out of our control (can you say 100+ degree heat waves, early spring, no rain then flooding rain!?).

Your first-half year results are often telling you the same thing. They are not simply a measure of your effort. They are a measure of your structure. If you spent the first half of the year as the approval point for everything—the one answering every question, saving the day, and putting out the fires—then your future results were capped before the year even began.

You only have so much time. You just didn’t see the harvest until now. Working harder inside the same leadership pattern will not change the outcome. It never has.

NOTICE THIS WEEK

It’s July. Look at what your business is harvesting right now.

Where are the results thinner than the effort you put in? Where are the same problems, delays, or bottlenecks showing up again?

Then ask: What did we plant—or fail to change—months ago that made this outcome predictable?

The harvest is not the problem. It is the evidence.

TRY THIS

In the new edition of Let It Go!, I dig into the patterns that keep leaders trapped in the middle of everything—and the practical shifts that create more capacity, ownership, and momentum.

Because changing the harvest yield starts with changing what you keep holding onto.

Helping you lead with less,

Your favorite lavender farmer- Emily

PS: You can follow our lavender farm on IG or FB @LamoreLavender