Landscape Management, October 2012

BUSINESSPLANNER2013 3 Shift from micromanager to coach The owner of a developing frm drives its actions and proftability Its through this micromanagement that the company succeeds But this same management style may hold the company back from further success Delegate more by letting go and allowing others to decide Also become a coach to your people supporting them in their decision making If you went into business at a young age you may not have had a boss to be a good role model to you But youve likely experienced a good coach through sports programs The best coaches are interested in building up individual athletes and winning teams Here are a few critical characteristics of winning coaches Educator Winning coaches teach not just technical aspects of the job but morals hard work and teamwork They also ensure their workers learn the skills they need to excel without obsessing that employees may take these skills elsewhere Its better to have your employees be well educated and leave you than to be under educated and stay on your payroll Be committed to their growth and they will commit to your companys growth LifELong LEarnEr Leaders are readers they go to education events read and listen to books You must be willing to stretch yourself to stretch the minds of others PassionatE PositivE You must bring this attitude to work every day How would your employees rate your attitude on a scale of zero to 10 Ask them for feedback You are the thermometer by which they reset their own internal thermometer each day when they come to work oPEn yEt dEcisivE You must be open to input and engage your people to be part of your frms success On the other hand you must not linger in doubt HonEst and rELiabLE The best employees want to work for someone whos trustworthy and reliable That means being willing to take short term hits e g rip out a walkway and rebuild it to meet specs to do the right things and build an honest reputation 4 Shift from generous to selÀsh with your time Many contractors spend their time doing lowlevel tasks and running around supporting their crews or taking their calls This can be a huge time drain that keeps you from doing more proftable tasks Getting out of this rut can be as simple as protecting a two hour chunk of time each day to focus on strategic activities Instead of LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2012 92 an open door policy consider a closed door policy where you arent to be disturbed between 10 a m and noon Start by delegating more Meet with your employees and ask them what tasks you should be delegating to them so that you can focus on more important business building Create your own list of 10 things and then compare with the list they come up with You will be surprised what they volunteer to take on 5 Shift from all hands on deck to clear roles and accountability All for one and one for all is how you frst grew your business But there comes a time when you have to instill more clarity and accountability into your culture The following fve steps will help create an accountability culture WritE doWn tHE mEasurabLE goaLs EmPLoyEEs arE rEsPonsibLE for Make sure they frst buy in to the goals Spend your time upfront creating buy in and accountability will come easily crEatE rELationsHiP contracts Identify what key employees should be doing for each other day to day Most owners focus on what the person does for the company or boss but they fail to write down what the boss does for the employee and more importantly what employees do for each other dont toLEratE bad PErformancE Give consistent and increasing feedback when people arent performing Give them three chances on critical activities They may be in the wrong position or you may have a systems problem When you meet with your employees including during reviews be prepared to take a hard look at your systems and be willing to make changes WEEd out EmPLoyEEs WHo dont sHarE your vaLuEs You may say Its hard to fnd employees so I put up with their bad behavior But if you dont let them go you will fnd it hard to retain top employees because youve lowered your standards WaLk tHE taLk You cant hold others to standards you are unwilling to meet yourself You have to follow the company rules and behave with the same attitude and character you expect from them 6 Shift from rainmaker to sales manager The owner cannot be the sole salesperson and at some point he or she will want or need to step out entirely Either way form a sales team now Ideally a team should have three salespeople to create internal competition and a spirit toward winning and cross sellcontinued from page 90