by Sylvia Pavlova (Bulgaria)
Roots are the underground branches that spread out beneath plants and trees as anchors. They provide water and nutrients from the soil to feed the plant. But because roots are usually out of sight, many people don’t realise how long and vast they can be. An alfalfa plant only 0.60-0.90 meters high may have roots reaching out as far as 9 meters. If you lay all the roots of a corn plant end to end, the resulting strand could be up to 152 meters long. Cavers in South Africa found a tree with the deepest-reaching root, so far: a wild fig tree with a root that extended nearly 122 meters into the ground!
In addition, roots can be incredibly strong. It’s common knowledge that, given enough time, roots can crack foundations, snap water lines, and lift sidewalks. Once they find even the tiniest crack, a rootlet can break through compacted soil, stone, or concrete and even push aside large boulders. For example, when tree roots become wedged in granite, it is the hard granite that splits while the comparatively fragile-looking root stubbornly continues to grow.
This is the fact of the matter. There is no healthy and fruitful plant without deep roots. So is any relationship. Only relationships with a good match of mutual expectations could bear good fruit. Moreover, as our root metaphor goes on, roots are ‘incredibly strong’. On a similar vein, people involved in a certain relationship as long as they have clear-cut mutual expectations may well overcome unexpected setbacks encountered down the way. Equally, the reverse is also true, should it happen that they have no clearly defined expectations, their relations are conditioned to go no further as the plants of no deep roots – they stand no chances but to wither away.
Source: iCN Issue 23 (Coaching Tools, Tips & Techniques); pages 45-48
About Sylvia Pavlova MBA, CMC, Assoc CIPD
Sylvia Pavlova graduated the international MBA program with OUBS, UK, 5 years ago. The program stands amidst the 1 % top MBA programs in terms of accreditation worldwide. Immediately after her graduation, Sylvia has been chosen to accede the 42 MBA international mentors and executive coaches with the university. She has acted as the executive coach of senior MBA managers from OUBS, Henley Business School, University of Leicester, Bocconi.
Since 2017, she has been an international Certified Management Consultant in Strategy and Business Development. Sylvia is also a registered consultant in Strategy at ‘Advice for Small Business’ Program of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She is the Managing Partner of Strategy+ Business Lab
