July Reflections: The Month of the Holly
In the old Ogham calendar, the Celtic tree calendar that gives each part of the year its own tree, we are in the month of the Holly. Known as Tinne. It runs from the 8th of July to the 4th of August, the eighth tree month of the year, following on from the mighty Oak.
At first the holly seems an unlikely tree for high summer. Here in the Northern Hemisphere everything around it is in full leaf and full colour, the hedgerows heavy, the days long and warm. And there among all that abundance stands the hollyLook closely on a walk this month and you will see it quietly shining. I find something steadying in that. Not everything that matters is at its most visible right now. Some of the most important leadership work is quiet work.
What are you noticing on your walks this July?
The steadfast tree
The Celts saw the holly as a tree of steadfastness and protection. I love that idea of leadership as watching over. Many of the leaders I work with are leading through near constant change: new people joining the team, valued colleagues leaving, functions merging and re-forming, sometimes while they navigate uncertainty about their own role. They are expected to hold steady while everything around them shifts, and to model a confidence they do not always feel.
The holly offers a different way of thinking about that steadiness. An evergreen does not resist the seasons; it lives through them, keeping its green while everything else changes around it. For me the equivalent in leadership is not having all the answers. It is knowing what stays constant when everything else is in motion: your values, your presence, and the quality of your attention to the people around you.
Evergreen leadership
A few recent conversations on my podcast, Leaders in Conversation, have deepened my thinking about this.
How to build winning relationships on and off the court.
Omar Abouseif, a former professional basketball player and now Global Associate Sector Manager at Shell, spoke about investing in people before outcomes, trusting that results will follow. Be in the moment, be intentional in every interaction, he encouraged, because small moments build big trust. I recognise this deeply from my own work with leaders and their teams. The micro-moments of genuine care and attention, repeated daily, are what people remember, and what trust is made of.
What makes us truly human in an Ai world?
Victoria Rennoldson, coach, speaker and author, in our conversation talked about what makes us truly human in an AI world. It reminded me that our ability to connect, to have good conversations, to build trust and relationships is ultimately our human differentiator. There is nothing soft, she says, about the so-called soft skills. In a time of extraordinary technological change, these are our evergreen capabilities. They do not go out of season.
What can we learn from not fitting in?
My latest guest is Neil McLoughlin, Director at Buckswood Overseas Summer School and an ADHD coach, and our conversation asks what we can learn from not fitting in. Neil leads through relationships rather than rules, and his own experience of dyslexia and ADHD shapes how he understands difference in others and builds environments where people can thrive as they are. One of his three encouragements to leaders has stayed with me since we recorded: you cannot pour from an empty cup. It feels like exactly the right conversation for this Holly month, about looking after your own energy so that you have something left to protect in others.
Three invitations
As we move through the Holly month, I offer three invitations for your own leadership:
Notice what is evergreen in you. When everything around you is changing, what stays constant? Your values, your way of being with people, the things you will not compromise on. Name them for yourself; they are what your team steadies itself on.
Watch over what matters. The holly protects. Ask yourself what, and who, needs your protection at the moment: someone's confidence, a team's energy, time to think, space to rest over the summer.
Tend the small moments. Like the holly's berries, trust ripens slowly and mostly unseen. A genuine question, a check-in before a meeting, a moment of appreciation. Small things, repeated with care, become the strength a team draws on later.
What quiet work is ripening in you and your team this summer?
Get in touch
Working with leaders and their teams on what it takes to collaborate well through change is at the heart of everything I do. If you are navigating change, building a new team, or looking for a better way through, I would love a conversation. Find out more about Collaboration Equation, the leadership framework Lucy Kidd and I created together, built on Curiosity, Care and Courage, at collaborationequation.com, or email me at anni@annitownend.com.