weLEAD
Online Magazine
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Are
You a Green Thumb Leader?
By
Eileen McDargh
From my home office, I can look out and see my garden. It's
loaded with wonderful, terrible sights, sights that mirror much of what I find
in many of our companies. You'd recognize it too.
There are roses speckled with mildew and rust from the fog
carried on the breath of El Nino. Weeds have taken over many patches of dirt,
despite the fact that I have gone over them with a hula hoe. (For the
non-gardener, that's a triangular hoe that saves your back while weeding.
Supposedly, you scrub away at the ground, loosening the weeds -and anything
else that stands in the way-while leaving the good soil behind.) The rogue
cherry tomato plant however has taken off … again. Sticky green arms with tiny
green/yellow fruit now stretch in all directions. The plant must have been the
gift from some bird that dropped a seed as it flew to a nest in the pine tree.
I didn't think a cherry tomato would grow in that patch of adobe clay. My
feathered seed-sower proved me wrong.
What I must do to get my garden back in shape, to make it
world class and ready for the competitive eye of my next door neighbor, is
exactly what every leader must do: seed, feed, and weed. How I perform seeding,
feeding, and weeding depends upon the season, the unexpected turns of nature,
and the makeup of my garden. Walk with me through my garden and you'll see the
analogies for our work world.
- Consider
the "season". In today's 24-hour, global economy, it would
appear that there is no season, anything that distinguishes night from day.
Grow, grow. Sell, sell. But the smart leader watches the sky, reads the
clouds, and can tell when there are shifts to indicate a new season. Bring
products to market at the wrong time or introduce an idea without
understanding timing and the "garden" can quickly resemble a
piece of scorched earth.
Watch
for trends. Read magazines like Executive Excellence,
Fast Company and American Demographics. Subscribe to TrendLetter. Explore
new planned communities and see how people are choosing to live. Study
mail order catalogs. In these latter two areas, you'll find a move toward
"Main Street U.S.A.". Sure, high-speed connections and
technology are placed in the home, but new designs incorporate walking
paths, close-at-hand stores, and alleyways connecting homes. Technology
will be used for information but the technology backlash is for creating
places of human, real-time interaction. Levenger's, the mail order catalog
for unique office and library accessories, features rotary dial phones.
The catalog copy reads, "You don't have to program it!"
- Give
credence to the unexpected and control what you can control. The
El Nino weather that not only raised havoc with my roses but spawned
dangerous storms and opposing droughts throughout the world is an example
of our helplessness to control some of our environment. The same thing is
true in business. Market turndowns, a coup in
Plant
seeds and give space to the sowers. A green thumb
leader knows that it is only through dialogue that ideas can sprout and
take root. Instead of jealously guarding "my ideas, my client, my
territory", a leader with an eye toward growing a garden takes no
ownership but rather seeks to find which seeds have merit. Like the biblical
passage, some seeds will whither on rocks or find little moisture in
shallow soil. But others will be carried to places where they flourish.
As for giving space to the sower, consider my vagabond tomato plant. In like fashion, where are the unexpected opportunities that can spring up if allowed to flourish? When newcomers bring ideas from other industries and businesses, are they welcomed or are they rooted out because "that's not how we do things here".
- Feed
different plants differently. Not every plant is fed the same thing, yet
all plants must eat. My roses need a systemic for the rust and mildew,
along with a topical spray. My oranges just need some citrus fertilizer
every now and then. A green thumb leader understands the truism that "nothing
is so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals". Just as each voice
has its own unique sonogram, each employee, associate or stakeholder needs
a unique blend of "food". For some, it's "numbers".
"Give me numbers and I thrive." For many, it's the opportunity
to learn and advance in knowledge. For others, it's the engaging nature of
the work itself that offers fulfillment. One size does not fit all.
- Weeding
is backbreaking work. A hula hoe alone will not suffice. It was not
enough to turn over the soil and think that I had emptied my garden of the
weeds. In fact, because I didn't bend over and get close enough to the
ground, I picked up only the surface "weeds". What I really had
managed to do was to churn the stronger ones into a hiding place where they
surfaced stronger and more invasive then ever. A green thumb leader hates
this part of the task. It means fact-finding. Accountability. And time.
Not everything that is "green" belongs in my garden. Not every
associate belongs with you. In fact, firing customers at times can also be
the healthiest long-term fertilizer for a vibrant business.
- Take
time to stop and smell the roses. I can get so overwhelmed with the
"work" of my garden that I forget why I planted it. Just sitting
by the side of the garden, watching my neighbors' delight when I deliver
bouquets to their doors, or smelling the fragrance in the evening are all
the reminders I need. Why have you planted your "garden"? Are
there people who delight in the work of your hands? What is the aroma that
lingers after you have turned off the lights for the night?
Here's wishing green thumbs for all of us.
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About the author:
Eileen
McDargh, CSP, CPAE, is an international speaker, author and seminar
leader. Her books include ‘The Resilient Spirit’ and it is the
companion piece to her talks on resiliency and spirit. For more information on Eileen and her
presentations, please visit http://www.eileenmcdargh.com.
© 2002 by Eileen McDargh. All rights reserved.