Corporate Gardening – Situational ability to hire, mentor, and grow people

I waited until after we received rain in Phoenix to complete this segment. Sounds risky, but I listened to the weather report and a 30% chance of rain in Phoenix in July is a higher chance than it sounds. Sure enough, we woke to drizzle and a pleasantly cool 4^th of July. My plants were delighted and our friends were too. No 100+ 4^th of July for us. As a matter of fact, the temperature remained in the 80’s all day making an outdoor celebration just perfect and my plants (and friends) got a brief respite from an overwhelming heat.

I promised garden analogies in my last post. Not simply because the parallels between gardening and management are obvious, but I am an avid gardener as well as devoted servant leader and the similarities resonant for me.

Some owners often make the mistake of saying they are building a company. You can build buildings and infrastructure but in reality companies are grown, not built. As with gardens where the key elements are the plants, PEOPLE are the key elements that allow a company to grow. Like plants, people come with their own genetic encoding and personal motivators that drive how and when they grow and develop, as well as what motivates them to grow.

The reason situational ability to hire, mentor, and grow people is a critical driver may already be obvious. To grow a garden one must prepare the soil and create the conditions that lead to optimal growth. A manager needs to know what types of people, from skills to personality fits, are needed.

After all, if the garden is for flowers and not vegetables, a gardener will shop only for flowers, and will look for the best plants for the weather, pest, and weed conditions the garden will inevitably experience. Similarly, a manager should have clear job descriptions for all positions and a powerful interview strategy to identify the best possible people to add. She should have a strong understanding of the people who are currently working within the company, what motivates them, what they believe they are doing and why (i.e. the vision) to assure good hires and complimentary fit.

A good gardener is always inquisitive about the conditions of the garden. Is fertilizer needed? More water? Less water? Are there any unwanted pests, weeds, or diseases? Gardeners ask these questions and make any needed adjustments because they know what kind of results they’ll get if they simply give a plant an intimidating look and bark out a command to “grow!” Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed owners and managers who try this technique in the office. Typically, the result is the same as a gardener would experience; no growth and in the case of the employee, de-motivation. Even more challenging is when the manager tries again, using the same technique, and then blames the employee when nothing happens (i.e. no growth, no change in motivation, etc.) If a gardener were to take this tact and then complain that his plants were not growing at the expected rate we would all think he was fairly loopy. However, this happens in companies so frequently and yet very few question the technique or the logic.

In gardening, there are three key risks that young plants must be protected from: Weather, Weeds, and Pests. Without the watchful eye of the gardener, advance planning, and risk mitigation these risks can have strong, daily, and often detrimental effects on the “corporate garden”:

In Phoenix, AZ weather is synonymous with sunshine. That sounds pleasant but with the sun comes crushing 110+ day temperatures. Our weather zone makes it challenging, but not impossible, to produce vibrant, bountiful gardens. However, typically, it’s not the day to day sun or rain that we worry about, it’s the sudden changes that cause problems. Strong winds, unexpected frosts, flooding, are all examples of conditions that can wipe out young plants. In our corporate garden, it is also the unexpected that causes significant risks to be realized. Sudden changes in priorities, funding changes, staffing changes can wipe out high potential ideas, energy and effort as quickly as a frost will kill a plant. It is critical, as a servant leader, to protect the people and their innovative ideas from these conditions wherever possible by insulating them from the unexpected situation/risk.

Any gardener knows that weeds left unchecked will take over a garden and rob the plants of the nutrients they require for growth. Likewise, in a corporate garden setting weeds are the distractions that arise from the culture and slowly choke out enthusiasm, motivation and powerful ideas by diverting the necessary resources to other areas. This doesn’t happen overnight (typically), but rather gradually over time. A seasoned gardener removes the weeds as they surface rather than letting them form a stronghold. A seasoned manager will do the same thing.

Pests come in many forms, but always come from outside the garden. Their goals often involve consuming the plant for their own purposes and needs, then leaving it when it is no longer of interest or offers feeding material. In the corporate garden, these pests come from all directions. They could be people that are outside a project team that want to involve themselves (i.e. put their “stamp” on an idea) so they can selfishly take credit later. The pest could be an individual who does not understand a vision, or corporate direction and continuously gets in the way of innovation or moving ideas and concepts forward by complaining about the “change” even after large scale change management issues and communication are in place. These pests can be an individual or an entire department. In any case, it is critical for managers to be on the lookout for Pests, and repel them as efficiently as possible.

Finally, when a garden is not being managed, it will simply keep growing, but in another direction than what was intended. Corporate gardens, and the beautiful people who make up the fabric, require a tremendous amount of attention and care. The more collaboratively and cooperatively senior management works together to ensure the attention is on the people and what they need to be successful, the higher the probability of an abundant harvest; year over year.