Learning to Lead Like Life Itself

How do we lead in a way that feels alive, kind, and connected to the living world?

In this episode of Sense-Making in a Changing World, Morag is joined by Kelly Wendorf, author of Flying Lead Change and founder of EQUUS, whose work brings together horses, neuroscience, and ancient wisdom to reimagine what leadership can be.

Kelly shares about leadership as a natural, relational process. Not command and control, but care and connection - moving from hierarchy to harmony.

Her principles of leadership — Safety, Connection, Peace, Freedom, and Joy — mirror what we see in every thriving ecosystem. The same qualities that sustain a healthy forest or a permaculture garden can also sustain our families, workplaces, and communities.

Morag and Kelly talk about what it means to lead from presence, to cultivate trust rather than fear, and to listen so deeply that the next right action becomes obvious.

“The lead horse doesn’t run at the front. She leads from behind, creating safety so others can step into confidence.”

Rewilding leadership is about remembering that life already knows how to lead. Our task is to learn again how to be in conversation with it - to listen to the more-than-human world, and to design our cultures, systems, and movements in ways that honour the web of life we’re part of.

This is a conversation for anyone sensing that leadership is less about power and more about participation - an invitation to step back into the flow of life and let nature show the way.

🌿 In this episode we explore:

• What rewilded leadership looks and feels like
• How the wisdom of the herd translates into human relationships
• The connection between permaculture and leadership
• Leading from behind: creating confidence, not control
• Presence as a regenerative force in times of change

Kelly Wendorf is a leadership coach, educator, and founding partner of EQUUS, an innovative organisation offering experiential learning with horses for leaders and teams. Her book Flying Lead Change: 56 Million Years of Wisdom for Leading and Living explores ho

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This podcast is hosted by Morag Gamble, founder of the Permaculture Education Institute - the leading-edge international online school for integrated permaculture design, education, leadership and [pr]activism.⁠

• Explore Morag Gamble's Permaculture Educators Program

Morag also shares conversations through Our Permaculture Life YouTube and the Festival of Wild Ideas.

This podcast is broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage on Jinibara & Gubbi Gubbi country.