I always wanted to be fair to employees who were struggling. Once I left a manager in place too long thinking I was being fair to him. The result was that the team underperformed and missed out on bonuses. When I finally changed the situation, the employees asked why I hadn’t acted sooner. I then
If you’re looking for ways to accelerate growth, an outside group of professionals can help you become more effective at accomplishing big goals faster. I often get asked, when is a board necessary? It is not an easy question to answer. It depends on the size and structure of your company, its strategic requirements and
In the HBO drama “Succession,” the failure of its corporate patriarch to plan for the future of his family empire turned out to be a sobering lesson for business owners of what can go wrong when you keep your succession cards too close to your vest. As a business owner, it’s hard to imagine your
Ten-to-fifteen percent annual growth is not a stretch for most landscape companies. It’s a bit above average, but it can be done if you do one thing exceptionally well — generate high quality referrals by regularly exceeding expectations on quality work and excellent service. I have used and recommended referrals as a growth strategy throughout
“You can’t be successful with other people if you haven’t paid the price of success with yourself.” For employees and teams watching your leadership example, the most important ingredient you put into your relationship with them is not what you say or what you do. Instead, it’s about who you are and the example you
From one big happy family to innovation-based environments, most companies have a workplace personality and a framework for “the way we do things around here.” Like DiSC for people, organizational culture profiling is essential for understanding how companies work. And for good reason: Companies with great cultures also have great people. In a war for
I have long been a fan of sustainable landscaping, smart land use and smarter ways to use water. I’ve loved the outdoors since I was a farm kid in upstate New York, never dreaming it would evolve into one of the greatest opportunities in my life when I joined the green industry out of Cornell.
Everyone, it seems, is looking for a silver bullet. They want the one thing that will solve a problem or be the quick fix that will make a difference in their business. And while there’s no such thing, business owners seeking the latest, most exciting breakthroughs still hope to find it. Secrets-to-success themes fall into
The best way to attain profitability is to get pricing right. Yet, for all its importance, an effective pricing strategy that maximizes profitability can be an ongoing challenge. In fact, how to price strategically is one of the how-to questions I get asked most often. There are four critical factors to build a good pricing
If you’ve ever found yourself agonizing over whether you’re going too fast or too slow, you’re not alone. Leading a business is an endurance sport. You can’t outrun your ability or lose steam before the finish line. I recently completed my 30th Half Ironman, a challenging one-day event consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, 56 miles
