Happy Friday,

At the bottom of this newsletter is a link to one of my recent YouTube videos where I'm working on some hives. If you go to a channel, you'll see a very short follow-up video showing the aftermath.

You can say a lot about what makes a great leader. Great leaders have dozens of attributes, lots of skills, deep empathy, etc. One way to bottle this up, though, is to say that great leaders create the environment that fosters consistent success.

That is more or less the game of beekeeping.

I can't talk to bees, and they can't talk to me. Even if they could, I doubt there'd be much to talk about. While I can generalize about the strain of honey bees in each hive, it'd be a mistake to believe each hive is the same. In fact, the more hives I get, the more differences I notice.

My job is to pay attention to what is going on with each hive, understand my bees' behavior, and tweak the circumstances so they can thrive.

For example, right now they aren't making wax. This is a common scenario at this point in the year that has to do with the weather. I can attempt to tweak things by offering a slow-release of thinned-down sugar syrup that might encourage them to build more wax. Why wax? Well, without wax, they cannot store honey, brood, or pollen. These are all the things they'll need going into winter.

In my video, one hive was particularly weak, despite having a new queen. Some queens just aren't viable. To give the bees more time to correct, I offered more resources from another hive. It turns out this wasn't helpful, but you'll have to watch that follow-up video.

Sometimes I do have to intervene. Honeybees are mostly helpless against certain pests and diseases, and it is my job to monitor and treat them. Sadly, the analogy for this for teams with humans isn't always so obvious as administering a simple test, but the effects are similar. A team can suffer and collapse right under the nose of a leader.

At the end of the day, though, the bees will do the best they can without my advice, input, or acknowledgement for my efforts. My challenge is to observe and adjust their circumstances so that they thrive. I think great leaders do the same.

Here's my weekly update for July 25th, 2025...

🗒️ The Innovation Paradox: The Many Minds of A Leader

Does innovation come at the cost of stability?

How do you manage performance when you're doing something new?

Welcome to the innovation paradox and what you can do about it.

Click here to read more

🎥 July 2nd, 2025 - Equalizing a Weak Hive

Click here to read more

Enjoy,

Ryan Latta