In this quarterly we explore some nature metaphors that are usefully provocative for leaders. In doing so we dig up the ecological roots of strategy to understand if competition for dominance drives the diversity we see in life, and what a ‘competitive coexistence’ strategy might look like in human terms. We illuminate where are some deep metaphors for leadership are limiting us. We seek fresh metaphors for partnership, given our race to integrate AI ‘co-workers’, and find partners that evolve into parasites and back again, single specialised ‘co-workers’ that are a recipe for fragility, and the destination for the deepest partnerships – endosymbiosis, or complete interdependence where one life-form is absorbed into the cells of another.