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Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive
Who isn’t curious about life inside a buzzy beehive and the miracle that turns sunshine and flowers in a meadow to a beautiful jar of honey spread on toast?
In this fascinating and fun book, Philip Atkinson, Organisational Coach and Beekeeper, lifts the lid on what happens inside a hard-working hive and uses this as a refreshing metaphor to examine working life.
Thought-provoking insights like these . . .
Bees have seven different jobs and only fly for the last few days of their lifeBees swarm to a new location and take time to seek second opinions from each other (and might disagree) – but when a decision is taken the bees all agree to stand by that decisionMale bees are no longer necessary at the end of the summer and they are murdered by the female worker bees so as not to be a drain on resources in the winter. . . bring a fresh perspective to many of the most pressing challenges you face in leadership and organisations today.
The book is structured through the yearly cycle with 12 chapters focusing on a lesson. Each lesson invites you to learn from the bees and reflect on your own role as a leader and role-model.
Inside the hive the bees work as a collaborative community – just as in this innovative book – where Philip has invited 12 Guest Writers to share their reflections and perspectives on each chapter.
If you want to keep learning and improving how you, your team, and business operate then this book is for you.
The beehive is the ultimate business case study for working life today.
Read on for the Buzz Buzz you need!
PRAISE FOR BEE WISE
“I couldn’t resist – but what a buzz this book is! Philip's passion and expertise shines through, as well as the inspired idea to invite twelve guest writers to add their perspective to the dialogue. They add real, grounded, relevant and sweet-as-honey insights. Bravo to all the industrious, diligent, clever and purposeful community involved. Gosh they sound like bees!”
—Caroline Barth, Chief Human Resources Officer at Syngenta Group
“What a powerful and insightful read. The bee metaphor is such an elegant way to introduce these 12 essential topics for leaders today.”
—Carrie Scott, Global Head of Sustainability and ESG Office, Novartis
“This is both a fun and thought-provoking look at leadership and life today. I keep dipping into different seasons and chapters, and each time I'm left with something to apply immediately or keep thinking about.”
—Nora Galli, Gulf and Channel Partners Network Lead Roche Diagnostics Middle East
“Bee Wise is a deep and practical look at who we are as humans, leaders, parents and role models with a responsibility to stop, pause and think about how we show up in the world today. It is full of real experience, devoid of jargon, and a very good read.
—Charles Style, Former Commandant of The Royal College of Defence Studies
“What a fresh and inspiring look at leadership today!”
—Pippa Edwards. Atlantic Rower and Leadership Coach
“This book represents a fresh look at beekeeping and life today and provides a greater insight to the life of bees and how we must support and protect them and give people the opportunity to work together with them in harmony.”
—Megan Denver, CEO Bees for Development Charity
“I was curious to learn more from the first line.
In this fascinating and fun book, Philip Atkinson, Organisational Coach and Beekeeper, lifts the lid on what happens inside a hard-working hive and uses this as a refreshing metaphor to examine working life.
Thought-provoking insights like these . . .
Bees have seven different jobs and only fly for the last few days of their lifeBees swarm to a new location and take time to seek second opinions from each other (and might disagree) – but when a decision is taken the bees all agree to stand by that decisionMale bees are no longer necessary at the end of the summer and they are murdered by the female worker bees so as not to be a drain on resources in the winter. . . bring a fresh perspective to many of the most pressing challenges you face in leadership and organisations today.
The book is structured through the yearly cycle with 12 chapters focusing on a lesson. Each lesson invites you to learn from the bees and reflect on your own role as a leader and role-model.
Inside the hive the bees work as a collaborative community – just as in this innovative book – where Philip has invited 12 Guest Writers to share their reflections and perspectives on each chapter.
If you want to keep learning and improving how you, your team, and business operate then this book is for you.
The beehive is the ultimate business case study for working life today.
Read on for the Buzz Buzz you need!
PRAISE FOR BEE WISE
“I couldn’t resist – but what a buzz this book is! Philip's passion and expertise shines through, as well as the inspired idea to invite twelve guest writers to add their perspective to the dialogue. They add real, grounded, relevant and sweet-as-honey insights. Bravo to all the industrious, diligent, clever and purposeful community involved. Gosh they sound like bees!”
—Caroline Barth, Chief Human Resources Officer at Syngenta Group
“What a powerful and insightful read. The bee metaphor is such an elegant way to introduce these 12 essential topics for leaders today.”
—Carrie Scott, Global Head of Sustainability and ESG Office, Novartis
“This is both a fun and thought-provoking look at leadership and life today. I keep dipping into different seasons and chapters, and each time I'm left with something to apply immediately or keep thinking about.”
—Nora Galli, Gulf and Channel Partners Network Lead Roche Diagnostics Middle East
“Bee Wise is a deep and practical look at who we are as humans, leaders, parents and role models with a responsibility to stop, pause and think about how we show up in the world today. It is full of real experience, devoid of jargon, and a very good read.
—Charles Style, Former Commandant of The Royal College of Defence Studies
“What a fresh and inspiring look at leadership today!”
—Pippa Edwards. Atlantic Rower and Leadership Coach
“This book represents a fresh look at beekeeping and life today and provides a greater insight to the life of bees and how we must support and protect them and give people the opportunity to work together with them in harmony.”
—Megan Denver, CEO Bees for Development Charity
“I was curious to learn more from the first line.
214 pages, Paperback
Published February 17, 2025
9 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
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May 9, 2025
Takeaways from reading the book:
What characterizes a beehive?
- Page 6: There are 30,000 to 70,000 bees in a beehive.
- Pages 13 and 144: Every bee has a clear understanding of his or her role.
- Page 13: There are no lengthy meetings about what bees do.
- Page 89: Bees use bee glue, which is called propolis, to reinforce the inside of a hive, seal any cracks and prevent draughts. Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with sticky sap gathered from tree buds.
What is the purpose of a bee? What is your purpose?
- Page 163: Bees have a single-minded purpose. That single-minded purpose is to support the genetic survival of the beehive.
- Pages 144-145: Bees do what is needed - in service of the system. They are totally present in the moment. Bees keep working until they are finished. Bees do not feel selfish greed. They end their lives in service of the community.
- Page 165: What is your sweet contribution to the world?
- Page 165: What is your unique contribution to the world?
- Page 166: What is important to you?
- Page 173: What small steps are you taking to move towards your purpose?
- Page 174: To find your purpose, pay attention to how you feel. A moment when you do something that helps you feel joy may be close to your purpose.
- Page 174: Give yourself permission to find your purpose at your speed and in the way you want.
What roles do female worker bees have?
- Page 57: The 1st role of a worker bee is housekeeper. It gets this role just after being born. Housekeeper bees keep cells in the beehive clean and keeps new born bees warm.
- Page 58: The 2nd role of a female worker bee is to feed larvae with pollen and honey. Pollen is a protein, and honey is sugar.
- Page 58: The 3rd role of a female worker bee is nurse. Nurse bees look after and feed the young worker bees.
- Page 58: The 4th role of a female worker bee is builder. In this role, they use their wax glands to build the six-sided cells of the beehive. These are angled at 6 degrees to the horizontal to make sure that the honey does not drip out.
- Page 58: The 5th role of a female worker bee is security guard. Security guard bees prevent other animals and insects from coming into the hive. They also provide good ventilation in the beehive by beating their wings.
- Page 59: The 6th role of a worker bee is forager. At the entrance, forager bees receive data from scout bees doing the waggle dance.
- Page 17: When female worker bees are in the role of being a scout, their job is to find a good source of pollen. When they locate a source, they will return to the hive to tell the rest of the bees. To communicate the quality of pollen to the other bees, they use the waggle dance. The waggle dance takes the form of a figure of 8. Through the way they dance, bees indicate the distance as well as the direction to the source of pollen.
- Page 73: Scout bees communicate - through the waggle dance - to the other bees about possible new homes. Other bees might go to the sites, which scout bees have discovered, make their own interpretations and come back to the hive to tell the other bees. When a critical mass of thousands of bees have decided to change home, they will consume large quantities of honey to fuel their trip and then fly to that new home.
What else characterizes female worker bees?
- Page 6: 90% of the bees in a beehive are female worker bees.
- Page 18: To share and receive information, bees use their antennae as well as the sounds around them.
- Page 29: To quickly decide which flowers to visit, bees use information from other bees, the smell of pollen, ultraviolet light and static electricity.
- Page 29: When a bee flies through the air, it creates a positively charged electrical field. As flowers and pollen are negatively charged, pollen will jump from flower to bee as the bee gets close to a flower.
- Page 119: When bees leave the hive, they fly vertically, lifting high above the hive before setting off on their journey.
- Page 119: When bees are in stress, for example of a storm that is coming, the tone that comes from the bees is higher than the tone, which comes from them when they are not in stress.
- Page 119: When bees feel happy, they do not sting.
- Page 135: During the Winter, the only job of the worker bees is to keep the queen bee warm and fed until Spring.
What characterizes male drone bees?
- Page 6: Drones are big male bees.
- Page 6: Male drone bees are fed honey and wait for an opportunity to mate with the queen.
- Page 6: When a male drone bee has inseminated a queen bee, the male drone bee dies.
- Pages 6 and 135: At the end of the Summer, when the male drone bees are no longer necessary, the female worker bees eject the male drones bees from the hive, sting them to death or leave them to starve.
What characterizes a queen bee?
- Pages 5 and 71: A queen bee is almost 3 times larger than the other bees.
- Page 5: The only role a queen bee has is to lay eggs.
- Page 5: A queen bee lives at the bottom of the beehive where it is coolest.
- Pages 5 and 71: Over her entire productive life, which is between 2 and 5 years, the queen bee will lay up to 2,000 eggs per day.
- Page 13: The queen bee does not measure work that bees do.
- Page 71: All bees in the hive decide collectively when it is time for a new queen. Then they start feeding the cells of a female worker bee with a special product called royal jelly. Royal jelly is a powerful hormone that turns a regular female worker bee with a life span of a short month into a queen bee.
- Page 71: The old queen and the new queen may fight about who will be the next queen of the beehive. The result of this fight may be that one of them dies. Another possibility is that one of the two queen bees leaves voluntarily and sets up another colony somewhere else. If this happens, the many thousand bees in the hive will need to decide if they will leave with the new queen or stay with the old queen.
- Page 72: A queen drone makes one flight in her life. During this flight, which is a circle flight around the beehive in late Spring, more male drone bees from the hive or other hives will follow the queen bee. The queen bee may mate with more than one male drone beescwhile flying.
- Page 72: A queen bee is capable of deciding when to release sperm to fertilise eggs. Eggs that are fertilised become the female worker bees. Unfertilised eggs become the male drone bees. In other words, male drone bees only have the queen's genes.
- Page 135: During the Winter, the queen bee does not lay eggs.
What characterizes honey?
- Page 45: To create a jar of 500 grams of honey, bees will have visited about 2 million flowers and flown 88,000 kilometres.
- Page 90: Honey attracts moisture. Therefore, bees keep cells of mature honey capped with wax to create an airtight seal. If the honey goes above 18% moisture content, it may turn sugar into alcohol, carbon dioxide and acetic acid. This means, the quicker the honey is harvested, the better the honey.
- Page 163: Throughout history, honey has been worshipped and revered as food for the gods.
- Page 163: Honey contains pinoxembrin, which is effective at improving the function of the human brain.
- Page 163: Honey has been used to treat wounds.
- Page 163: Honey can contribute to the improvement of gastrointestinal and neurological issues.
How can diversity help strengthen innovation?
- Pages 34 and 39: Bees and the honey they make flourish best in an open field of wildflowers. Bees thrive from a variety of flora.
- Page 39: Leonardo Da Vinci combined knowledge about art, engineering, architecture and science.
- Page 39: Marie Curie combined understanding of physics, chemistry and mathematics.
- Page 39: Steve Jobs combined expertise in technology, design and marketing.
What are some methods to help make decisions?
- Page 74: Decision-making by consent: 1. One person finds facts that are needed for the group to make a decision. 2. He or she makes recommendations. 3. The group is asked to decide. The majority decides.
- Page 76: Dragon's Den: 1. Everyone shares proposals. 2. Everyone shares two inputs about each proposal: A. What they like. B. What else they would like the person to consider. 3. Owners of each proposal says what they will change about their proposal.
- Page 83: Six thinking hats by De Bono.
- Page 84: What solutions are good enough to test / try out?
What characterizes a beehive?
- Page 6: There are 30,000 to 70,000 bees in a beehive.
- Pages 13 and 144: Every bee has a clear understanding of his or her role.
- Page 13: There are no lengthy meetings about what bees do.
- Page 89: Bees use bee glue, which is called propolis, to reinforce the inside of a hive, seal any cracks and prevent draughts. Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with sticky sap gathered from tree buds.
What is the purpose of a bee? What is your purpose?
- Page 163: Bees have a single-minded purpose. That single-minded purpose is to support the genetic survival of the beehive.
- Pages 144-145: Bees do what is needed - in service of the system. They are totally present in the moment. Bees keep working until they are finished. Bees do not feel selfish greed. They end their lives in service of the community.
- Page 165: What is your sweet contribution to the world?
- Page 165: What is your unique contribution to the world?
- Page 166: What is important to you?
- Page 173: What small steps are you taking to move towards your purpose?
- Page 174: To find your purpose, pay attention to how you feel. A moment when you do something that helps you feel joy may be close to your purpose.
- Page 174: Give yourself permission to find your purpose at your speed and in the way you want.
What roles do female worker bees have?
- Page 57: The 1st role of a worker bee is housekeeper. It gets this role just after being born. Housekeeper bees keep cells in the beehive clean and keeps new born bees warm.
- Page 58: The 2nd role of a female worker bee is to feed larvae with pollen and honey. Pollen is a protein, and honey is sugar.
- Page 58: The 3rd role of a female worker bee is nurse. Nurse bees look after and feed the young worker bees.
- Page 58: The 4th role of a female worker bee is builder. In this role, they use their wax glands to build the six-sided cells of the beehive. These are angled at 6 degrees to the horizontal to make sure that the honey does not drip out.
- Page 58: The 5th role of a female worker bee is security guard. Security guard bees prevent other animals and insects from coming into the hive. They also provide good ventilation in the beehive by beating their wings.
- Page 59: The 6th role of a worker bee is forager. At the entrance, forager bees receive data from scout bees doing the waggle dance.
- Page 17: When female worker bees are in the role of being a scout, their job is to find a good source of pollen. When they locate a source, they will return to the hive to tell the rest of the bees. To communicate the quality of pollen to the other bees, they use the waggle dance. The waggle dance takes the form of a figure of 8. Through the way they dance, bees indicate the distance as well as the direction to the source of pollen.
- Page 73: Scout bees communicate - through the waggle dance - to the other bees about possible new homes. Other bees might go to the sites, which scout bees have discovered, make their own interpretations and come back to the hive to tell the other bees. When a critical mass of thousands of bees have decided to change home, they will consume large quantities of honey to fuel their trip and then fly to that new home.
What else characterizes female worker bees?
- Page 6: 90% of the bees in a beehive are female worker bees.
- Page 18: To share and receive information, bees use their antennae as well as the sounds around them.
- Page 29: To quickly decide which flowers to visit, bees use information from other bees, the smell of pollen, ultraviolet light and static electricity.
- Page 29: When a bee flies through the air, it creates a positively charged electrical field. As flowers and pollen are negatively charged, pollen will jump from flower to bee as the bee gets close to a flower.
- Page 119: When bees leave the hive, they fly vertically, lifting high above the hive before setting off on their journey.
- Page 119: When bees are in stress, for example of a storm that is coming, the tone that comes from the bees is higher than the tone, which comes from them when they are not in stress.
- Page 119: When bees feel happy, they do not sting.
- Page 135: During the Winter, the only job of the worker bees is to keep the queen bee warm and fed until Spring.
What characterizes male drone bees?
- Page 6: Drones are big male bees.
- Page 6: Male drone bees are fed honey and wait for an opportunity to mate with the queen.
- Page 6: When a male drone bee has inseminated a queen bee, the male drone bee dies.
- Pages 6 and 135: At the end of the Summer, when the male drone bees are no longer necessary, the female worker bees eject the male drones bees from the hive, sting them to death or leave them to starve.
What characterizes a queen bee?
- Pages 5 and 71: A queen bee is almost 3 times larger than the other bees.
- Page 5: The only role a queen bee has is to lay eggs.
- Page 5: A queen bee lives at the bottom of the beehive where it is coolest.
- Pages 5 and 71: Over her entire productive life, which is between 2 and 5 years, the queen bee will lay up to 2,000 eggs per day.
- Page 13: The queen bee does not measure work that bees do.
- Page 71: All bees in the hive decide collectively when it is time for a new queen. Then they start feeding the cells of a female worker bee with a special product called royal jelly. Royal jelly is a powerful hormone that turns a regular female worker bee with a life span of a short month into a queen bee.
- Page 71: The old queen and the new queen may fight about who will be the next queen of the beehive. The result of this fight may be that one of them dies. Another possibility is that one of the two queen bees leaves voluntarily and sets up another colony somewhere else. If this happens, the many thousand bees in the hive will need to decide if they will leave with the new queen or stay with the old queen.
- Page 72: A queen drone makes one flight in her life. During this flight, which is a circle flight around the beehive in late Spring, more male drone bees from the hive or other hives will follow the queen bee. The queen bee may mate with more than one male drone beescwhile flying.
- Page 72: A queen bee is capable of deciding when to release sperm to fertilise eggs. Eggs that are fertilised become the female worker bees. Unfertilised eggs become the male drone bees. In other words, male drone bees only have the queen's genes.
- Page 135: During the Winter, the queen bee does not lay eggs.
What characterizes honey?
- Page 45: To create a jar of 500 grams of honey, bees will have visited about 2 million flowers and flown 88,000 kilometres.
- Page 90: Honey attracts moisture. Therefore, bees keep cells of mature honey capped with wax to create an airtight seal. If the honey goes above 18% moisture content, it may turn sugar into alcohol, carbon dioxide and acetic acid. This means, the quicker the honey is harvested, the better the honey.
- Page 163: Throughout history, honey has been worshipped and revered as food for the gods.
- Page 163: Honey contains pinoxembrin, which is effective at improving the function of the human brain.
- Page 163: Honey has been used to treat wounds.
- Page 163: Honey can contribute to the improvement of gastrointestinal and neurological issues.
How can diversity help strengthen innovation?
- Pages 34 and 39: Bees and the honey they make flourish best in an open field of wildflowers. Bees thrive from a variety of flora.
- Page 39: Leonardo Da Vinci combined knowledge about art, engineering, architecture and science.
- Page 39: Marie Curie combined understanding of physics, chemistry and mathematics.
- Page 39: Steve Jobs combined expertise in technology, design and marketing.
What are some methods to help make decisions?
- Page 74: Decision-making by consent: 1. One person finds facts that are needed for the group to make a decision. 2. He or she makes recommendations. 3. The group is asked to decide. The majority decides.
- Page 76: Dragon's Den: 1. Everyone shares proposals. 2. Everyone shares two inputs about each proposal: A. What they like. B. What else they would like the person to consider. 3. Owners of each proposal says what they will change about their proposal.
- Page 83: Six thinking hats by De Bono.
- Page 84: What solutions are good enough to test / try out?
June 28, 2025
Today I’m bringing you a refreshingly innovative take on a management book, combining nature and metaphor: Bee Wise 🐝 by Philip Atkinson - a book about bees, and being.
It’s not a nature book. But it is about how we work, lead, connect, and learn — and how one buzzing system can reveal more about our own than we think.
Continues on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/just-b...
It’s not a nature book. But it is about how we work, lead, connect, and learn — and how one buzzing system can reveal more about our own than we think.
Continues on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/just-b...
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