Jeff McManus's Blog, page 21

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,...

It Is All In The Attitude

“Your attitude is either your best friend or your worst enemy, your greatest asset or your greatest liability.” ~John Maxwell 

Last week on a wet, cold day, I took advantage of an opportunity to grow my team’s leadership abilities. I brought together all my landscape services employees and we discussed attitude and the role it plays when working on the front line. Is it important? Does attitude really matter and why?   

We started the exercise by writing down the name of someone we greatly...

Growing Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”  –William Arthur Ward 

Recently, I was speaking with a leader who produces millions of dollars of revenue each year through his organization. He employs over 80 people, and his company creates an amazing product. In gratitude, he would give his team a lot of love at Christmas – a big company party, lots of food, gift cards, iPads, entertainment, trips. He really wanted to make it special for all of them. A...

Solutions That Win

Victoria and her husband Brian started their design/build construction business back in 2000. When the housing industry took a serious downturn in 2008, the business got hammered by the recession and they struggled to find work and had to let people go. They eventually had to close the business for good.   

A few years later, they started a new construction business, Bear Creek Outdoor Living, that only focuses on delivering unique backyard structures that help inspire families to live, work ...