Sometimes leadership lessons show up in feathers.
There are baby owls up the street from my house, and lately, they’ve become the talk of the neighborhood. It started with one neighbor posting a picture and then another sharing a sighting. Pretty soon, folks were gathering under the trees, standing shoulder to shoulder in the quiet, just watching.
It’s become a growing circle of awe. My neighbors and I ask each other, “Did you see the owls today?” and light up when someone says they haven’t heard yet, because then we get to share the wonder. We swap tips from birders and stories from the evening before. Some people have started bringing binoculars. I even bought a book on owls—because I can’t not know more.
And the whole situation has me thinking: This, right here, is what we need more of in leadership.
Standing in awe with others—no one posturing, no one performing—is a deeply human experience. It costs nothing. But it gives everything. As a leader, you don’t need a formal agenda—just the willingness to look up and take something in together with others.
That’s connection. That’s presence. And in today’s noisy world, that’s leadership.
We often treat leadership like it lives in boardrooms or budgets, but I think it lives in moments like this when we pause long enough to notice something beautiful, something unexpected, something bigger than ourselves.
Wonder does a few things that every leader should embrace:
- It brings people together. There’s no hierarchy when we’re all staring at the same awesome sight. It’s shared curiosity.
- It slows you down. You can’t rush awe. It invites you to stop and pay attention.
- It keeps you humble. You aren’t the center of the story when you’re witnessing something take flight. You’re lucky to be there.
And maybe most importantly, wonder reminds you that leadership doesn’t always have to mean solving or fixing. Sometimes, it means noticing, naming, being moved.
Sometimes you need to pause before you start a team meeting and wonder, “How did we all get here?”
If you really think about all the journeys, paths, efforts, moves, and synchronicities that had to align for this particular group of people to be in this particular room, at this particular time, working on this particular project together—one that you get to lead or be part of—that alone can inspire awe.
Even on a Microsoft Teams call, if you take a moment to see all the people in all the boxes, you can feel a sense of reverence for the opportunity to work together, think together, and truly listen to one another.
So, the next time something stirs that feeling in you, don’t brush past it. Linger. Share it. Invite someone else to look up too.
And you don’t need a nest of owls to practice wonder.
Try this with your team: Once a week, take five minutes at the start of a meeting to ask a simple question like:
- “What’s something that surprised or inspired you this week?”
- “What’s something you’ve come across lately that has lifted your spirits or made you smile?”
- “What’s one beautiful or unexpected thing you noticed today?”
Whether you’re leading a team, a family, or a community, there’s power in awe. There’s wisdom in wonder. And there’s nothing more connective than standing next to someone else, both of you craning your necks toward the sky, smiling like kids, saying, “Wow, would you look at that?”
