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
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This podcast is hosted by Morag Gamble, founder of the Permaculture Education Institute, where she mentors people to design and teach permaculture in their own unique contexts.
Morag has been asking a central question for thirty years: How are we to live? These podcast conversations are part of her ongoing attempt to think that through in public, in community, with people who care.
Morag is also host of the Ethos Fellowship, Ethos Foundation, International Permaculture Festival of Wild Ideas, steward of Fritjof Capra's international Alumni Network, and member of the Ecocivilistation Coalition.
Discover Morag's permaculture design and teaching courses here.
If this episode meant something to you, share it with one person who needs it. That is how good ideas travel.
Morag records from her solar-powered studio in a permaculture ecovillage on Jinibara & Gubbi Gubbi country.
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraggamble/
Website: https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org/podcast/
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