Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My Lawn and Leadership Part 3 – Lawn Rehab Applied

Five years ago I moved to Atlanta to try to rehabilitate a struggling office, a bare spot on the lawn of our organization. Oddly enough, turning it around took the same skills that I learned when Jon and I re-established my lawn (read My Lawn and Leadership Part 2 to get the first half of the story). The landscape of employees was similar to the thin coverage of my previously mentioned lawn. They were weak and tired-looking, refusing to get along with each other, and completely unable make money no matter how hard they tried. “When was the last time they were truly inspired?” I thought. You’ll never guess what I figured out? They had never been inspired and many had little to no skill to do their jobs, but you knew that already didn’t you?

I have a few mentors in my life who come along side me in order to help me grow my family, business, and self in the best way possible. Each man helped me in their own way figure out how to succeed in turning around my newfound human lawn. Thanks guys!

The first step was to begin “disturbing the ground”, and I did it a few different ways. I made our goals visible. They never had a daily reminder of what they needed to accomplish. How can you hit a goal when you have no idea where you’re aiming? Next they needed a vision, so I cast one: profitability, teamwork, and a new, fun, and engaging environment. They were a bit skeptical at first, but over time they grabbed on to it and the beginning of today as we know it was born.

It wasn’t easy though. I had to address basic blocking and tackling from execution to basic office protocol. Some of the employees would show up 30-45 minutes late each day. Yeah, I didn’t stutter (can you stutter when you type?). I began to hold them accountable and raised the standards of basic things like promptness, lunch breaks, and smoke breaks. I rewarded behaviors I wanted to see replicated like exceptional teamwork, financial breakthroughs driven by brilliant creativity, and extraordinary customer service. Unfortunately, not everyone fit my vision. I began to terminate people that didn’t love what we did and whose performance wasn’t up to par with where we were headed. Instead I began to hire people who embodied what I wanted to become. I wasn’t perfect either, and made more than enough mistakes in the process. We were continuing to figure out what we wanted to become – a world class lawn or another disaster.

Ultimately I knew I couldn’t take the business to the highest level alone, so I established my leadership team, consisting of three people. I chose those who had the most influence, and began developing their leadership skills immediately. They desperately needed to be fertilized. We read leadership books and I wrote study guides. I was amazed at how well they debated ideas and challenged each other. In time they each grew into rock solid leaders.

Over the last five years, one was plucked by another company for a leadership position and another has been promoted to a corporate role. I have since promoted others as we’ve grown ensuring the process lives on. At the same time, our team became one of the fastest growing offices in the company.

When my family and I ended up selling our house, the yard was a gem. It only took one good growing season to sort things out. The key was partnering with someone with experience who had my best interests in mind, disturbing the ground, working the seeds into the soil, and consistently watering and fertilizing. I drove by the house a couple years later and to my disappointment it had regressed back to its former self. It was almost as if Jon and I had never been there. Taking care of an excellent lawn isn’t easy, but it all begins with the lawn’s leader. What do you want your turf to look like? How do you want it to grow? What do you need to do to make it happen? What is strategy do you need to employ to promote the right kind of growth?

2 comments:

  1. What do you need to have in place to keep it growing through different seasons of leadership & not regress to it's former state?

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  2. Great question my anonymous friend. Much like with your lawn, you need to build on each season or it will regress. In my current environment we constantly focus on personal growth. My leaders and I work through books, topics, and good debates in order to drive development. Over time they grow stronger and stronger. At this point, the only thing that could cause it to regress to its former state would be to remove my leaders and I...which is highly unlikely.

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