Jeff McManus's Blog, page 20

Labor: Ways to Find Quality Employees

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” ~Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

Today, finding quality employees could well be a full-time job. The challenge is that you already have a full-time job. The good news is that there are many outlets that make this less time consuming and more beneficial. Here are a few:

1. Post on your social media outlets. What started as a way to stay in touch with friends and family has now become a way to stay in business. Use it.

2. Ask your c...

That’s Not My Zone

“Yeah, but that’s not my zone, that’s their zone.” How do you overcome a wrong mindset that creates silos and excuses within your team? Most facilities and large properties need a simple and efficient way to manage their work flow. One simple way to accomplish this is to divide a large area into smaller areas of responsibility. In developing these smaller areas, aka zones, it allows for better attention to detail within the individual areas and prevents us spending all our time in one location a...

Want To Irritate Your Boss?

Most of us don’t try to irritate the boss, we see no real positive gain in such. If your boss has empowered you to make decisions and act on their behalf, then my assumption is you probably are capable and have the power to answer questions that come up. As a leader, you are looking for people whom you can develop and hand off more responsibility to. Leaders need their people to think through problems, respond and handle situations with sound judgement. A real leader can’t and should not be the ...

What Is The Most Admired Trait In A Leader?

Honesty. If you are truthful, it builds trust. So how do you mentor your people to be honest? One way is to be honest yourself…always.

Recently, I was doing a one-day training event with a great organization, and I had everyone list the traits of their childhood heroes. As we reviewed their heroes, it was clear that the heroic traits had more to do with the hero’s character and less to do with their knowledge. The act of teaching people (especially your employees) character can feel like it i...

What does Pre-emergent Weed control and Team Culture Have in Common?

How does a professional turf expert stop weeds from growing in their turf-lawn? How do amazing companies stop negative employees from influencing the company culture? There are a lot of similarities.  Let’s explore this a little further.

To stop weeds from growing on a high-performance field or fairway, the turf is treated with a pre-emergent weed control product at critical times of the year. The pre-emergent’s job is to stop weeds from ever starting to grow in the turf grass. It doesn’t all...

Business Growth Can Be A Blessing And A Curse

With so many companies experiencing growth opportunities, one of the biggest challenges facing our service industry is finding people to work.  The demand for quality work has not and will never decrease. Quality is important and always will be. Some businesses have dealt with the labor shortage by decreasing the number of customers they will service or purging out their low margin – high upkeep customers. Others are ramping up employee pay and seeking new employees.

The new season of growth ...

Team Gifts

There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being — to help another succeed.  

~Alan Loy McGinnis 

It is the end of the Christmas season, New Year's Eve is upon us and giving/getting gifts is still a big part of the culture. Did you give your team anything? Without knowing your team, I hope you did, but I don’t necessarily mean a material gift, although I am sure that would have been nice. What I mean by giving is: Are you serving them well?   

Years ago,...

‘Tis the Season…

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” ~ Augustine 

Friends, as we pause this time of year to reflect, rest and be with loved ones during the Christmas season, I want to share with you my gratitude for each of you and for our time together. I have had the opportunity to speak with many of you; I've opened your conferences and coached some amazing leaders. What you have given me is a view into the ways you and your industry lead. I have grown from being with leaders like you. ...

Are We Weeding by Example?

In the early days of my management career, I remember a scheduled manager training session on weeding. It was the good ol’ get on your knees, bend over and clean out the bed without damaging the plants exercise. Back in the old days, it was not uncommon to assign a new person the task of weeding to see if he/she had what it took to make it on the team. Not long into this unpleasant task, I started trying to figure out ways to avoid being assigned to it in the future, but in this case, it was mor...

Do you see a weed or a wish?

“Carve your name on hearts and not on marble.” ~Charles Spurgeon 

We had just started dating and one Sunday afternoon, I took my future wife to a local park to explore and have a get-to-know-you-better picnic. While enjoying our time together, my wife saw a dandelion “puffball” nearby. As a horticulturist and high-end resort landscape manager, I recognized this obnoxious weed immediately as a foe. In my world, dandelions are weeds, a menace that needs to be prevented and removed. In my world,...