Early one morning, a rooster sat on an old trailer beneath an apple tree, and crowed. Not wildly, not frantically. Simply – because the day had begun.

It made me think about leadership. We often connect leadership with volume. With the person who talks the most, who gives the clearest instructions, who always has an answer ready. But a rooster doesn't crow to be the loudest in the yard. He crows because he is the first one awake – and shows others that a new day is allowed to begin.

That's a different picture of leadership than the one most organisations model for us. Not: I know everything, so listen to me. But: I am already awake, I am already here – come, the day is beginning.

Only once a leader has found security and calm within themselves can they give exactly that to others. Not through control. But through presence. Through what they simply are, before they even say anything.

Perhaps that is exactly the leadership we truly need in teams and organisations. Not the loudest voice. But the one who is awake first – and shows others: you too may wake up now.

– Simone Reichstein