The Power of Environments

Last week, I was visiting a friend in a neighborhood here in Calgary that’s in the middle of a lot of change. It’s one of those areas where redevelopment is really driving things—older homes coming down, and new builds going up as two houses replace one lot.

The feel of the neighbourhood is shifting. Big mature trees are being taken out. There’s more traffic, less parking, and a steady background noise of construction that doesn’t really stop.

As we were talking about all of that, she pointed out something I honestly hadn’t noticed at first—the squirrels in her yard.

They didn’t look great. Some had very little fur. Others looked patchy, thin, and clearly unwell. It was a bit unsettling. She told me her neighbours had been noticing it too—how even the squirrels seem to be reflecting everything that’s changing around them.

At first, it’s easy to assume it’s a disease. Then it got me thinking. So, I did some quick research.

These squirrels are living through a rapidly changing environment—less habitat, more noise, more human activity, more crowding. Over time, that kind of constant pressure builds. It creates chronic stress, and that stress weakens their immune systems. What we end up seeing on the surface is just the result of everything happening underneath.

And the great lesson hit me again in that moment: environments are powerful.

In leadership, we spend a lot of time talking about strategy, performance, accountability, and results. All important. But we often underestimate something that’s quietly shaping all of it in the background: the environment we’re operating in every day.

And I don’t just mean the physical space.

Environment is things like:

• The tone of your conversations
• The expectations that get set (and the ones that don’t get said out loud)
• The pace everyone ends up defaulting to
• What gets tolerated versus what gets addressed

And here’s something I’ve come to believe pretty strongly working with leaders: Culture isn’t a statement—it’s an environment.

This month in our Extraordinary Leader Program we are talking a lot about culture. It’s not what’s written in a values document or posted on a wall. It’s what people actually experience:

• How leaders show up on a normal Tuesday
• What behaviors get recognized and rewarded… and which ones get ignored
• Whether conversations feel real, or just transactional
• How people are treated when things get stressful

Just like those squirrels, we don’t always notice the impact right away. But over time, the environment either builds people up—or slowly wears them down.

A lot of leadership environments don’t fall apart suddenly. They drift.

It might start with a decision to use digital communication to significantly replace real connection, or conversations becoming purely transactional, or the everyday perception that everyone is too busy—too busy to connect in daily huddles, to give meaningful feedback, or to support.

None of these feel dramatic on their own. But together, they contribute and shape the environment. And that environment starts shaping the people in it. If there is a feeling of a constant stressed state, that slowly impacts clarity, creativity, and energy.

Your Own Environments Matter First

The best place to start noticing the impact of environments is to start with ourselves. Because whether we’re intentional about it or not, it’s influencing us every day.

A few questions worth sitting with:

• What am I consuming daily (in my body and my brain)—and how is it shaping my thinking and energy?
• Where am I choosing convenience (texts, emails, speed) over real connection?
• What pace have I unconsciously accepted as “normal” in my life and work?
• How do I acknowledge people and how often?

One of the things we see consistently in coaching is this: most leaders don’t struggle with capability—they struggle with environment.

And the good news is, small shifts can change a lot:

• Creating space to think instead of constantly reacting
• Having more real conversations instead of defaulting to messages
• Setting boundaries that protect your energy and attention
• Purposefully recognizing team members every day

The reality is, when you change your environment, you change how you show up.

As a leader, you’re always shaping the environment. Even when you’re not trying to. So, the real question becomes: are you shaping it on purpose—or just letting it happen?

1. Culture isn’t what you say—it’s what people experience
   • Do people feel like they can actually talk to you? Or just report to you?
   • Are conversations real, or just efficient?
   • Do people feel seen—or just managed?

   In private clubs especially, this is huge. The internal environment your team experiences always shows up in your members’ experiences. Always.

2. Energy flows through the environment—both good and bad
   
   Just like stress impacts those squirrels over time, it also shows up in teams. As a leader:
   • Your tone sets the emotional temperature
   • Your pace becomes everyone else’s pace
   • Your presence either creates calm—or tension

   If the environment feels rushed, unclear, or disconnected, people absorb that. But the flip side is just as true.

   When the environment is calm, clear, and grounded, people don’t just perform better—they think better, communicate better, and treat others better.

A Final Thought

Environments are powerful. The squirrels don’t get to choose their environment. They just adapt to it. But we do. Let’s be intentional about it—how we show up, how we communicate, what we allow, what we model. Watch what happens.