#Juglone January 19

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Maybe you are reading this post because you are curious about the word JUGLONE.

I am going to come back to that word but I want to talk about walnuts.

There is lots of interest in walnuts for a variety of reasons. In fact there is even an academic conference called Walnut Research Conference held each year at UC Davis on walnuts. It will be a virtual conference next week from January 27-29, 2021 because of the pandemic. Walnuts are considered a healthy food because they contain antioxidants, great source of Omega-3 which is believed to prevent heart disease, and have been linked to helping manage diabetes.

One type of walnut tree is the black walnut or Juglans Nigra.

Black walnut trees are not only prized for their nuts but the lumber makes fantastic furniture and other items. Here is a link to some beautiful black walnut furniture.

I want to circle back to JUGLONE. The black walnut tree is a high performer with lots of value for its fruit (nuts) and its beauty in woodworking. The black walnut has a dark side because it produces JUGLONE. It is a substance produced by the black walnut tree to stunt the growth of other plants. JUGLONE affects germination of plants. It is very difficult for other plants to thrive in close proximity to the black walnut tree because of JUGLONE. I want to stress not impossible but difficult.

In the workplace, on teams, on non-profit boards, in the church, and on electing governing bodies we often encounter five star performers. Those performers sometimes are just like black walnut trees, highly prized for their commercial results but toxic to anything else flourishing around them.

The black walnut tree wants to be left alone to do its own thing it has no interest in contributing to the surrounding ecosystem. What can a leader do with someone on their team that exhibits black walnut tree behavior on her/his team? In essence they are dealing with a toxic prima donna.

I don’t have a pleasant and sweet answer. Often without some behavioral change the team members spreading JUGLONE has to go. Here is a article written by Aidan McCullen I located on LinkedIn.

The Black Walnut tree wants to be left alone, it does not want to contribute to the surrounding ecosystem. Sometimes we have to accept that certain types of trees or people are not going to be contusive to having a vibrant and diverse forest or team.