Hi there, and welcome to Cultivar™!
Maybe you found me through my website, maybe you found me on LinkedIn, but no matter how, I’m glad you are here.
It means you recognize the leadership potential inside you, and want to enhance your perspective.
So what is the Cultivar newsletter? In short, it’s my leadership coaching in written word format, and I chose the name for a very specific reason, with my definition mimicking the one found in botany:
// cultivar //
A leader whose traits, perspectives, and processes have been intentionally selected, retained, and propagated for the purpose of envisioning and guiding organizational ecosystems and their people to thrive.
Where authentic leadership becomes a living relationship with your world.
Cultivar Leadership Solutions (CLS) is a leadership development and culture advisory firm I started to guide emerging and established leaders on a path of cultivating their capacity to lead authentically while developing the perspective necessary to thrive beyond the foreseeable horizon.
Leadership isn’t a title, a right, or a singular trait. It isn’t something you gain by taking on a role.
At CLS, we guide people who lead from both personal and professional experience, those individuals who’ve weathered setbacks and disappointment, asked themselves the hard questions, and want to lead with integrity, impact, and intention.
Our work is rooted in the belief that authentic leadership isn’t an approach to leading that you adopt, but rather uncover, cultivate, and continuously grow into.
We focus on helping you understand and become a steward of your leadership ecology: the dynamic systems of people, culture, power, purpose, and process that you move within and influence through how you show up every day.
Cultivar doesn’t provide coaching in the traditional sense. We provide guidance for leaders who are embracing who they are, their values, and learning how to shape the systems around them with that same authenticity.
Why Guiding versus Coaching?
I use the term “leadership guide” intentionally because the work we do together isn’t about fixing who you are or performing an archetype of leadership. We work with you to discover how you lead and cultivate those unique qualities into the vision of actionable impact you want to have in the world.
Guiding is a relationship of reflection, trust, and perspective. It supports your capacity to lead not with answers, but alignment. Guiding points out things you may not be aware of when plotting your course, helps you identify blind spots, and makes navigating liminal growth less daunting.
I work best with individuals who are committed to growing as leaders and recognize the potential within themselves, their teams, and their organizational ecosystems. They just need a little guidance on navigating the terrain or someone to support them as they ascend.
About Me:
Appalachian Tenacity & Yorkshire Grit.
Hello there, I’m Chris - an Appalachian-raised son of a Yorkshire immigrant and an advocate for empowerment, with an eclectic background spanning organic sustainable living, military service, craft beer, insurgency and security studies, open-source intelligence analysis, teaching, people operations, and leadership development.
I bring my lived experience and cultivated perspective into conversations that aid leaders in understanding the systems around them and grow into ways of leading that feel authentic and make a lasting, meaningful difference.
I’d love to hear your story or answer any questions you have about mine. If you’d like to chat about leadership and authenticity, or Star Wars and quesadillas, let’s get to know each other’s authentic selves.
Why subscribe?
I’ve had an eclectic life so far, during which developed a perspective and way of thinking I’d love to share with you. Apart from one-off publications, Cultivar has three options:
Contour Lines: Much like the depiction of elevation on a topographical map, these short segments signify the altitude I currently find myself at. They are more personal in nature, looking at philosophy, food, and whatever else I want to talk about.If you want to see where I'm at in navigating the terrain of my life's ecosystem, subscribe!
Compass Points: We all need a direction to go in, especially when trying to grow personally and professionally. This series is a reflection on a lesson or concept I've come across that helps readjust or maintain the direction going forward.
Cultivated Perspective: Occasionally I'll do a researched deep dive into leadership concepts, drawing upon my professional experience and personal interests. In order to become the best versions of ourselves we need to cultivate the information we synthesize together into new varieties of knowledge.
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