What the Olive Tree Teaches Us About Developing Leaders
Why did we name our coaching framework after the olive tree? Because leaders grow the same way, slowly, under pressure, and with careful tending.
Why a tree?
When I developed the coaching framework behind AxiomVerve’s leadership programmes, I wanted a name that said something true about how leaders actually grow. I chose the olive tree.
The olive tree is an ancient symbol of wisdom, peace, resilience and strength. It grows slowly. It survives in hard, dry ground where other trees fail. It needs patient tending and careful pruning. And once established, it bears fruit year after year, often for generations, for people who never saw it planted.
Great leaders are much the same. They are shaped by time, pressure and careful tending, and they produce fruit that nourishes others. It is a picture of patient growth, quite unlike the idea that leadership can be installed in a two-day workshop.
Great leaders are shaped by time, pressure and careful tending, and they produce fruit that nourishes others.
Four lessons from the olive tree
1. Growth takes time. Becoming a senior leader takes years. Real development happens over months, as new ways of thinking are tried, tested and turned into habits. Programmes that promise transformation in a day usually deliver inspiration that fades by the following week.
2. Pressure shapes strength. The olive tree puts down deep roots precisely because the ground is hard. Leaders, too, grow most through difficulty. A tough decision, a failed project or a role that stretches them beyond what they thought they could do all build strength. Good development helps leaders learn from pressure, rather than shielding them from it.
3. Cultivation matters, and so does pruning. Left alone, an olive tree grows wild and bears little fruit. It needs tending, and it needs pruning. Pruning cuts back what no longer serves, so that energy goes where it matters. For leaders, pruning means letting go of habits that once worked. The habits that make someone a leader are often different from the habits that got them promoted.
4. The fruit is for others. We judge an olive tree by its harvest, rather than its height. Leadership is the same. Its true measure is what grows around a leader, more than what the leader achieves personally. That harvest includes stronger teams, better decisions, and people who become leaders themselves.
Ownership. Leverage. Insight. Vision. Execution.
The five letters of OLIVE are the five stages of the framework. Each has a counterpart in the life of the tree.
| Stage | What it means for the leader | In the tree |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Accepting full responsibility for outcomes, and making a genuine commitment to change | The roots, from which everything grows |
| Leverage | Identifying and activating the strengths, resources and relationships the leader already has | The soil, which holds what is already there to draw on |
| Insight | Deepening self-awareness through reflection, honest feedback and discovery | The pruning, which shows clearly what to keep and what to cut back |
| Vision | Creating a compelling, values-aligned picture of the leader’s future | The growth, reaching purposefully towards the light |
| Execution | Turning vision into concrete commitments and accountable action | The fruit, which others can see and share |
Three principles make the framework work in practice.
Change starts from the inside. Before a leader can shift their strategy, culture or relationships, they must first shift their perspective and beliefs. So OLIVE begins with the inner work of Ownership and Insight, then moves outward into Vision and Execution.
Ownership comes first. Coaching succeeds when the leader has made a genuine commitment to change. Ownership is a stance the coach returns to whenever progress stalls, long after the first session.
Growth moves in cycles. Like the seasons, the stages loop and repeat. A breakthrough in Execution, for example, may send a leader back to Insight. A renewed Vision may reopen a deeper conversation about Ownership. The OLIVE framework is therefore a guide that adapts to each leader, rather than a fixed script.
What this means for organisations
If leaders grow like olive trees, then developing them is a long-term process, rather than a one-off training event. Three questions are worth asking of any leadership development you invest in.
- Does it allow enough time? Lasting change takes months, rather than days. Look for development with practice and follow-up over several months.
- Does it start with the leader’s real situation? A first-time manager and a chief executive need different things. Development should begin with the leader’s own situation and goals.
- Does it end in action? Insight becomes valuable when it changes behaviour. Look for commitments, accountability and evidence that things have changed.
At AxiomVerve, every leadership programme is built on OLIVE, from OLIVE Foundations for new managers to OLIVE Executive for senior leaders, OLIVE Team for leadership teams, and OLIVE Horizon for executives approaching retirement. Each is tailored to the leader, and each is designed to bear fruit long after the programme ends.
Grow the leaders you will depend on
If you are thinking about how to develop the leaders your organisation will depend on, we would welcome a conversation.
