Posts from the “Business Practices” Category

Gratitude isn’t just for the holidays

Posted on January 6, 2014

This time of year we are always reminded that we should give thanks to those around us and to be grateful for what we have. Very often, in keeping with the spirit of the season we might even give a gift of some kind to show that appreciation. Snow falls and holiday music fills our offices and it’s hard not to get into a good mood. This festive time of year makes me ponder the question, “How can I keep this gratitude going all year round?” In the rush of the spring landscape season it sometimes can be hard to stop and remember to thank our employees. Affectionately called the ‘100 Days of Hell,’ the lead up to the fourth of July can often be…

Categories: Business Practices

What your business can learn from: project managers: First in a series

Posted on November 25, 2013

A very smart man named Albert Einstein once said “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” This surprisingly simple concept is one that often plagues us in small businesses. It’s so easy to do things the same way for years and never give any thought as to why. Typically it’s only when a problem arises that we begin to analyze our actions and processes for a solution. In the past few years we’ve been making a real conscious effort to take a proactive approach to innovation; taking cues and ideas from outside our industry and inevitably, our comfort zone, to push our business further. Whether a landscaper, property manager, or business owner, I believe we can…

Categories: Business Practices

Tagged: #project management

Being the best doesn’t happen overnight

Posted on January 26, 2013

Winter time is a great time for reflection in the landscape business. There’s no denying that snow keeps us more than busy but in those lulls between snow events winter is a time for planning and improvement. Last winter my HR Manager and I were having one of our famous inspirational chats about our employees and the potential and growth we see for them. We were commenting on how some of our employees are die-hards. They love everything about us and would do anything for us. They think we are the best place in the world to work. My HR Manager stopped me and said that she’s always been a little bit envious when the list of New Jersey’s Best Places to Work was…

Categories: Business Practices

The Green Industry & Equipment Expo

Posted on November 23, 2012

Every October thousands of landscape company owners and managers descend upon Louisville, Kentucky for the largest green industry expo and conference in the US. The conference is action packed with classes and seminars for companies, as well as serving as an opportunity for some good old-fashioned tire-kicking on all the newest equipment that the expo center holds. With so much going on and so much to see it can really be hard to choose what you would like to see and do. So this year, with the GIE recently behind me, I figured I’d write a little recap of what are the best things to attend during the conference and what to avoid. Let me first start off saying for those who might be…

Categories: All That Is Green, Business Practices, Landscape Management

Dedication

Posted on October 26, 2012

The following is taken from Duke’s Landscape Management’s Fall 2012 Newsletter. I wanted to share my thoughts and excitement about training and my commitment to my employees. To read the full newsletter and see past newsletters, please visit http://www.DukesLM.com. Every good company has a mission statement. It’s usually the first thing that aspiring entrepreneurs construct as the vision of their company. Too often it gets placed in a company handbook or attached to a business plan and then is forgotten about and never seen again. Every summer, we at Duke’s like to dust off our mission statement and make sure it’s true and relevant to our company. We like to do this in the form of a company retreat. A kind of misnomer, our retreats…

Categories: Business Practices

People People

Posted on September 28, 2012

About 20 years ago I attended a business conference and as part of the seminar they made us all take a personality test. To be honest it felt a little hokey and a bit like going to a fortune teller. I didn’t believe that this test was going to truly be able to pin down what kind of person I was but in the interest of the conference and curiosity, I took it. After we took the test, the presenter went into depth about all the different personality types and what it meant to be each type. I was completely floored at how accurate my score was. I definitely fit the mold for my personality type. It was as though he were reading personality…

Categories: Business Practices, Landscape Management

The “Magical” Management Retreat

Posted on August 15, 2012

Every year we hold a management retreat to work on strategic planning and team building. Whenever I say this to people I always feel like I have to follow it up with a disclaimer sentence so they don’t get the wrong idea. “We don’t hold hands and sing KumBaYa or anything. We work on big picture stuff.” I think it’s funny that some people view management retreats as either a luxury that is too expensive or a touchy feely new age event that has no room in their bottom-line focused organization. Both of these views are common misconceptions. In reality, management retreats are an amazing way to fast track and implement change in your organization. More so than anything it’s a great way to build team camaraderie and to get buy-in for any projects you might want to start. Sound like a magic bullet? Let me tell you a story and you can decide for yourself. Picture it: Duke’s Landscape Mgmt, early spring following a non-existent snow season. Our HR Manager is on maternity leave. Our new HR Generalist is new to the industry and doing her best to hire for the spring rush. We’ve decided to not participate in the volatile H2B program this year, so we have a big influx of new guys ; talented guys but new nonetheless. Spring is upon us early due to the weather. Some managers are pulling their weight while others are not. Money is tight, hours are long, and tempers seem to be incredibly short. Do you see the picture I’m painting here? It looks like a disaster, doesn’t it? It sure felt like a disaster to me. I kept asking myself, “Why is this so hard?” I’ve seen and been a part of other teams that pulled together in the face of greater adversity than ours and yet my team is having so much trouble. After a bit of introspection I realized that everything that was happening was pretty normal for our industry but how we were dealing with each other was the true problem. My managers were working as individuals and what seemed like some little personality conflicts had snowballed into downright discord and ineffectiveness. My HR manager and I sat down and set our minds to changing that all. We planned a management retreat. This would be an opportunity for us to get out of our normal day-to-day routines and the comfort of those routines and really tackle, head-on, all the problems we were having. We chose a leadership program that suited our needs perfectly and set a plan out for a weekend. (We chose The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. Read it if you get a chance. It’s a really great book for learning how to build teams.) Management retreats don’t have to be a huge investment in money. If it is within your budget and you can afford a facilitator or if the topic is beyond the spectrum of what your team’s abilities are, I encourage you to hire a professional. There are a ton of talented people out there who can work with your team and your budget to help you accomplish your retreat goals. While it’s amazing to hire a facilitator to come in and lead your team through a retreat sometimes it’s just not feasible. As it happens, my HR Manager has extensive experience in management training and could easily facilitate ours, so we averted a cost there. Over the course of 2 activity filled days we very carefully learned about ourselves, how we interact with each other, how we want to interact with each other, and set a plan as to how we would accomplish that. It was a bit out of everyone’s comfort zone initially but over the course of the weekend, through guided brainstorming and goal setting, we were finally all on the same page. Sprinkle in some much needed bonding time over dinner and cocktails and finally we had the makings of a team. It wasn’t as though someone had waved a magic wand over my team and suddenly everyone was happy and holding hands but something had definitely changed. The retreat had planted a small seed. People who had worked together for years had learned more about each other than they had ever known. New people to the team finally felt accepted and felt they could share their ideas. People had decided on how they wanted to be treated and committed to treating everyone that way. We had walked into the retreat as individuals and walked out a team. Now, don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of planning, the retreat itself was jam packed with work, and the follow-up meetings post-retreat are still taking place but it was all worth it. “Disasters” may come along but now we are a team that can effectively work together to overcome them. I have the beginnings of a great team and am appreciative for the jump-start our retreat provided.

Categories: Business Practices