Good gardening is not just about growing good plants; it’s also about getting rid of the weeds.
Good plants need the right environment in which to grow, they need fertile ground, nurturing and watering.
When we have weeds, they compete for the same resources that our good plants need and often they are virulent taking more than their fair share and starving the good plants of the nutrients that they need to flourish.
It’s the same with our teams, for them to flourish we need to weed out the growth thieves who take all of the nourishment but give little back in return.
The easy option is to ignore them, but when we do that our gardens become over run, and it’s the weeds who become dominant who flourish.
As leaders we have to take the hard action, we need to pull out these weeds. I know it’s difficult, but the others are watching to see what type of garden we want, do we want it over run by weeds or to be weed free.
When we take the course to be weed free, the others will thank us for it.
It not only benefits our company, but it also benefits them, it gives them the opportunity to grow.
When I talk about weeds, these are not necessarily the poor performers; they are members of the team who can have a negative impact on the others, regarding attitude as well as their performance. They may be individuals who put themselves ahead of the team, think the roes don’t apply to them or could just generally be trouble makers.
The hardest ones to deal with are those who make a significant individual contribution but still hamper the teams progress. Often we make excuses for these because they seem so good. But it’s team work that makes the difference, not an individual contribution, over the long-term, so we need to be focused on the team and not on any one individual and certainly not at the detriment of the team.
In work company where I worked we actually had to let the best performer we had go, it was tough, because we knew there would be an immediate drop in production. But we also knew we would never fulfil our true potential with them involved. They took too much from the rest of the team; they stifled their growth. So we decided we had to take a short-term hit, for the benefit of our long-term growth.
When we did that, the atmosphere changed almost immediately. Initially there was relief within the team, then this was changed with a spirit of positivity.
There was a small drop in our performance, but it was much lower than we had imagined, and not only that but we achieved closer to our full potential in a much shorter time than we had hoped for.
When we tend the weeds, our gardens will flourish because it gives us a better environment to allow our other plants to blossom.
If you’re looking to improve your results, then call us on +1 561 501 088 to arrange a strategy call to see how we can help.
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