Sometimes it’s hard to transform or transition to the next level much like a caterpillar into a butterfly.  As a leader transformation is about creating value for others and helping them see the greatness that is already on the inside of them. These leadership lessons will help you understand how important it’s to shift yourself and your leadership from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

Understanding problems from many angles

Caterpillars have 12 eyes.

You would think an insect with 12 eyes would have excellent eyesight, but that’s not the case. If you watch a caterpillar, you’ll notice it sometimes moves its head from side to side. This most likely helps it judge depth and distance as it navigates somewhat blindly and differentiates between light and dark.

Understanding your Strength

A caterpillar has as many as 4,000 muscles in its body.

humans have just 629 muscles in a considerably larger body. The caterpillar’s head capsule alone consists of 248 individual muscles, and about 70 muscles control each body segment.

In order to come into form, a butterfly develops through a process called metamorphosis that has four stages; each stage is fully dependent on the other. While leadership change can at times feel painful, if you don’t allow it to go through all of the stages of change, nothing will ultimately transform or grow. You will stay the same and it will delay your ability to go to the next level (Flying). Be patient with yourself during times of transition. Your mind, body, and spirit are undergoing changes.

TIME TO FLY – One day, the caterpillar stops eating and growing, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly.  The caterpillar that lies inside the cocoon will never become the beautiful butterfly if someone cuts open the cocoon prematurely. It is the struggle itself that allows the butterfly to emerge as a strong and transformed into something new.

Understand that this growth process is necessary and a sign of leadership. This experience will be difficult, but often life-changing and for the benefit of you and your team.

 

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority”. Ken Blanchard

 

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