Seasons of Leadership
Leadership in the social impact sector has always been demanding, and right now it's particularly relentless.
Social Impact leaders are navigating funding uncertainty, increased community needs, political instability, and attacks on the sector itself. The leaders I work with feel a deep sense of responsibility for their organization's mission, their team's wellbeing, and for advancing equity and justice. This commitment is both motivating and exhausting.
I hear from clients all the time about the pressure they feel to support their teams through transition, chart a course through uncertainty, and disrupt deeply entrenched systems. All while trying to show up for their families and take care of themselves.
The highs and lows of social impact leadership are something I'm deeply personally connected to. I've held multiple public-facing leadership roles and I've experienced firsthand the struggle to find balance and sustainability in equity and justice work. I am continuing to learn about the importance of seasonality in my own leadership and for the leaders I support.
I'll admit that it feels challenging to talk about seasonality, slowing down, and recovery in this period of history where we are battling fascism and fighting to protect ourselves and our neighbors from real harm. But I believe that building a sustainable resistance is critical to winning. When we're honest about what we can do, how we can show up, and actually follow through on our promises, we build a strong collective that goes far beyond any individual. Being honest with ourselves and each other is part of how we ensure we don't burn bright and then burn out.
I first wrote a version of this article in 2024 and it is still so relevant today. I have become even more convinced that individual heroism, pushing ourselves to our limits, and acting like we are in a short-term sprint will not save us. Our best chance to build something long-lasting is to invest in rooted, compassionate work where we center all of our humanity even as everything feels urgent.
The Four Seasons of Leadership
The Ayni Institute offers a beautiful framework for understanding leadership seasonality. They describe four seasons that all leaders cycle through:
Winter. This season is characterized by rest and reflection. It's a period to focus inward on regeneration and on evaluating lessons from the previous cycle. Winter is when leaders recommit and prepare to birth the next leadership cycle. Winters can feel uncomfortable and vulnerable, but they're essential for integrating past lessons and preparing for what's next.
Spring. This season is about opening yourself to possibilities and experimentation. Spring is the start of a new cycle. Leaders feel more excitement, energy, and willingness to take risks. Spring is crucial for trying new things and generating fresh ideas. If leaders rush through spring, organizations miss opportunities to develop new ways of thinking and acting.
Summer. This season is all about doing and giving. The focus is external, on activity and production. Summers can be intense, and creating balance during this high-activity season is critical to avoid burnout.
Fall. This is when we see the results and outcomes of summer's work. Leaders get to celebrate wins and recognize gains. It's also when many leaders experience waning energy. Building awareness to notice when it's fall in your leadership cycle allows for intentionally slowing down and transitioning into winter, rather than crash-landing there.
Why This Matters Now
I'm speaking directly to leaders who are actively working to build a more just world. Those of us on the front lines of this work play a crucial role in building the just future we need and deserve. And this is long-term, generational work. If we're to sustain, continue, and deepen our social justice work, we have to be realistic about what it looks and feels like to lead this charge over the long term and through adversity.
The four seasons of leadership are natural and inevitable. We all move through all of them. One of the most important gifts we can give ourselves, our organizations, and our communities is building the skill and awareness to notice which season we're in, embrace it, and intentionally make space for the wisdom that season offers.
But our systems don't make this easy.
Capitalism demands constant production. Rest, recovery, and reflection are rarely prioritized. The current funding environment intensifies this pressure. When resources are scarce, taking time to rest and reflect can feel impossible or even irresponsible.
Capitalism would like us to always be in spring and summer: high innovation, high risk-taking, high production, high activity, high intensity. But pretending it's always summer is dangerous. We're human beings, not machines. When we don't make space for fall and winter, we harm ourselves and ultimately harm our organizations. I learned this through bitter experience. When I didn't take time to slow down, my body eventually forced the message through illness and complete exhaustion.
The Cost of Ignoring Seasons
There's is danger in not anticipating and embracing falls and winters as natural, welcome parts of our cycle. When we try to continually operate in spring and summer we end up in chronic stress. Research shows that chronic stress leads to burnout, decreased cognitive function, and serious health consequences,. For Black women specifically, workplace stress is compounded by racism and gender bias, leading to disproportionate health impacts.
We are seeing this in real time. This year, forty six percent of nonprofit leaders reported being concerned about their own burnout. About one in four public sector workers report feeling burned out very often or always. And research on social justice and human rights activists consistently finds that people whose work is tied to their deepest values are especially vulnerable to burnout.
As leaders, we can get discouraged, disengaged, or even leave our roles when we notice our energy waning. If we don't build structures into our organizations to support natural cycles of rest and recovery, we lose highly skilled and committed individuals. This is a loss for those people who may not reach their full capacity, and for organizations that lose their skills, learning, and wisdom.
When leaders burn out and leave, movements lose institutional knowledge and future generations lose potential mentors. This extends beyond individual wellbeing. Our collective success depends on it.
Embracing the Cycle
The best part of seasons is that they're a cycle.
That first spring day when birds are chirping and you don't need your heavy coat is magical. When my kids were younger, we'd walk through the neighborhood gleefully pointing out "signs of spring." A crocus pushing through the ground or a bud opening on a tree.
Releasing yourself to the seasonality of leadership brings with it a sense of acceptance, freedom, and possibility.
Meeting this moment requires leadership that is courageous, grounded, and flexible, which means we need leaders who are energized, healthy, deeply rooted, and well-resourced. We can't be those leaders if we're operating in perpetual summer.
What season of your leadership are you currently in?
Can you think of a time when you went through a fall of winter season in your leadership? What did that experience feel like? Were you caught off guard? What lessons did you learn from that time?
What structures exist in your organization to support seasonality in leadership? What structures could you create?
References
Ayni Institute. "Leadership Development." Ayni Institute, https://ayni.institute/leadership-development/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
"Chronic Stress > Fact Sheets." Yale Medicine, https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/stress-disorder. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
Clerkin, Cathleen. "More Women Work in Nonprofits—So Why Do Men End Up Leading Them?" Harvard Business Review, 26 Apr. 2024, https://hbr.org/2024/04/more-women-work-in-nonprofits-so-why-do-men-end-up-leading-them
Center for Effective Philanthropy. State of Nonprofits 2024. Center for Effective Philanthropy, 2024, https://cep.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/NVP_State-of-Nonprofits_2024.pdf.
American Psychological Association. "Stress Effects on the Body." American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.