The Leadership Toll Before the Bloom
Blooming is not the beginning.
It’s the evidence.
I visited Art in Bloom DC last month—
a historic home filled with floral sculptures.
Breathtaking bursts of color
in spaces built for preservation and restraint.
Dr. Kimberly E. Osagie pictured at Art in Bloom DC exhibit, March 2025.
But what stayed with me wasn’t the beauty.
It was this:
Before anything reaches the room,
There is tending.
There is timing.
There is unseen patience.
It’s the glorious burden of leadership—
Holding vision without immediate proof.
Investing in people long before outcomes.
Sustaining purpose through crisis and complexity.
In mission-driven work, leadership often means laboring without applause.
The emotional toll. The unpraised discernment. The inherited fractures.
It doesn’t show up in dashboards.
But it shapes everything that does.
That’s what I left the exhibit thinking:
Before the bloom—there’s everything else.
Here’s what I’ve been chewing on since:
🌱 Roots before results.
Transformation rooted in unacknowledged labor—
Especially emotional and identity labor—collapses under pressure.
Resilience starts with recognition.
🌿 Tending is strategy.
In moments of uncertainty, taking time to reassess direction, realign expectations, and reset energy isn’t indulgent.
It’s how strategy gets sharper.
🪨 Shallow soil doesn’t hold.
Shifting from outcome obsession to enabling conditions—like trust, clarity, and care—requires new habits: open dialogue, role-alike communities, and managers who hold space, not just performance.
Originally appeared on LinkedIN.
Honor the human cost and keep the work moving. Let’s do both with care.
