News Published: 14 February 2024

Botanic gardens are complex organisations, and their leaders need to acquire a wide range of skills and experience if they are to lead gardens effectively. I have heard directors describe themselves as combinations of salesperson, retailer, caterer, scientist, gardener and business leader – reflecting the demands of the job, and the variety that it entails. This complexity creates challenges for leaders and managers who come into the botanical community from other sectors, but also for leaders who are promoted from within one particular part of an organisation into a more general leadership position.

Another factor that needs to be considered is the evolving and ever-changing demands made on garden leaders. A few decades ago, extreme weather events were exceptional. Today, they are increasingly frequent. The recent fires in Jardín Botánico Nacional de Viña del Mar in Chile, in which four people associated with the garden lost their lives, are just the latest in a long catalogue of man-made and natural disasters directly affecting gardens and their staff. Our role in botanic gardens is not only to manage such disasters when they affect us but also to help broader society to become more resilient. Cultural challenges have also become more acute, particularly in multicultural societies, where miscommunication or misunderstandings that might have been waved away in the past, may now result in substantial reputational damage and dismissal. The opportunities for miscommunication are multiplied by orders of magnitude through the sheer volume of correspondence that modern day managers and leaders generate daily in this digital age – hundreds of emails, chats, tweets, posts, and blogs – all recorded for posterity and re-examination. Perhaps we need to add emergency worker, diplomat and Public Relations consultant to that previous list of skills.

So, what can we do to better equip our leaders of the present and the future?

Other than ‘on the job’ learning, there are very few places in which a senior botanic garden leader can receive formal training covering all the facets of garden leadership. Longwood and Cornell Botanic Garden both offer excellent residential, year-long courses in public garden leadership for a limited number of people each year but, for people, already in post and with family and other commitments, spending a year in the United States is not an easy option, even if they are accepted on a course. I’m also not aware of many botanic garden leadership programmes or qualifications in other parts of the world.

An option that we have been asked to explore by BGCI’s International Advisory Council (IAC) is an online, modular course that covers all the aspects of botanic garden leadership at a level commensurate with what a leader needs to know. This could cover elements of administration, public engagement, conservation, horticulture and science, as well as leadership itself. If, as envisaged, this were a global, online leadership course, it can be delivered in multiple languages, in modules, at times to suit different audiences and individuals, and it can be made real and interactive by bringing in the perspectives of existing leaders via webinars and symposia. The IAC itself, comprises 38 directors of gardens from six continents, who bring a huge wealth of experience and perspectives.

I’m delighted to say that the American Public Gardens Association has joined with BGCI in scoping this idea, and looking for funding to make it a reality. It’s time we harnessed the inspirational leaders in our community and their wealth of leadership knowledge, and shared it in a way that is helpful to future leaders.

Watch this space.