In this Impactful Teamwork episode, Julia Felton explores what nature teaches about regenerative leadership, inspired by adopting a lamb named Charlie and observing Canadian geese offspring.
Using Yellowstone’s trophic cascade, she explains how removing wolves collapsed ecosystem relationships and how reintroducing them restored balance—paralleling how organisations remove key relationships and then wonder why performance collapses.
She critiques extractive, command-and-control leadership that fuels silos, poor collaboration, CEO bottlenecks, and change fatigue, citing data on business failure and cross-functional unity.
Drawing on lichen and horse herds, she highlights interdependence, rhythm over relentlessness, and relationships as infrastructure, and outlines three regenerative leader behaviours: investing in relationships, building “teamship,” and leading with attention.
She also identifies sabotage patterns: extraction disguised as standards, busyness as avoidance, and mistaking compliance for commitment, and invites listeners to connect via businesshorsepower.com.
00:00 Teamwork Advantage
00:47 Nature Inspired Leadership
01:53 Yellowstone Regeneration
04:07 Extraction Leadership Trap
07:08 Accountability Breakdown
08:30 Lichen Interdependence
10:12 Horse Herd Teamship
13:25 Three Regenerative Principles
14:21 Regenerative Leadership Practices
18:41 Sabotage Patterns
22:49 Choose Regeneration
24:03 Closing And Subscribe
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