Be like a Sunflower

A few days back, I got to read an exciting concept about sunflowers. These vibrant yellow flowers are known for its beauty and also for healthy vegetable oil they provide us as food! Sunflower seeds also serve as a nutritious snack. Above all, these plants are known for a typical idiosyncrasy – “heliotropism”. These plants (and flowers) turn their face toward the sun and track it. As karthe sun travels across the sky, the flower head tilts and swivels to ensure that it keeps facing the sun always.

Sun is a powerful source of energy which is wisely leveraged by these plants through this process of ‘solar tracking’. That’s the reason why sunflowers are also known as happiest of all flowers! The powerful vibrancy of these flowers provides mental, physical as well as spiritual energy to those around it!

Well, I was curious to understand what happens to these plants on a winter day! Or a day when there is no sun but all shade? Where do these flowers look at, under such situations? How do they source energy when the sun is absent? The answer I got was enlightening. When the winter blues cast a spell, and the sun hides beyond the sky, these sunflowers look at one another to harness the mutual energy radiated by them!

This phenomenon, to me, is something like cohesive teamwork in the setup of an organisation. Let me elucidate the idea further with some illustrations.

Some time back I had read a quote which said, “The best lessons in management are learnt in the times of economic recessions!”

When the market is on a high and sales revenue keeps flowing in, the most apparent (and also the most fragile!) indicator of satisfaction – i,e, ‘the incentives’ (or dividends), keep flying into the bank accounts of employees and stakeholders. Naturally, the sense of being cash rich makes people feel happy. However, when the times get tough, and sustenance becomes a challenge for organisations – many people fret, and their confidence gets shattered. These are the phases in life when members of a team should take lessons from a sunflower.

The bullish phase of the business environment is akin to the rising sun which radiates hope and optimism. The sunflowers (read employees/ stakeholders) in the garden (read organisation) find themselves comfortable in the warmth of the high energy sun rays! As the bear phase ushers in, many of these flowers start to wilt! The reason – they never realised that all members of the team could become a mutual source of energy and enthusiasm for each other.