The Grow Show

New business podcast series with Bill Arman and Ed Laflamme. With this free podcast, Lawn & Landscape is launching a new series called The Grow Show. Through regular content-rich, quick-hitting podcasts, the series aims to address pressing business issues that contractors are current facing in their businesses.

The first show focuses on the top things landscape contractors should be doing to get their business going up in a down economy. Read Full Article.

Click Here to Listen to the Podcast

Six Questions Everyone Should to be Able to Answer

Success in any organization depends on setting clear expectations and goals. And making sure that everyone in your organization clearly understands his or her role in that process is crucial to moving forward.

To ensure that everyone in your organization is clear about the road ahead and what’s expected of them along the way, it’s key that everyone, including You, the leader, is able to answer these six questions:

1. What am I supposed to be doing?
2. What are the expected goals or standards?
3. How does my performance match up to these goals?
4. What do I need to learn or do to improve?
5. What can I expect if I am successful?
6. What happens if/when I fall short?

Once you and your people have a clear sense of what’s expected--evidenced by an ability to answer the Six Questions above--you’ll be well on your way to success and accomplishing your mission.

Setting Clear Expectations

One of the most important responsibilities of any successful leader is to make their expectations--both of themselves and their people--crystal clear. To eliminate any misunderstandings about the way ahead and what's expected, make sure you, as well as everyone else in your organization, can answer the following questions…clearly.

The 10-15 Report: Taking Your Employee’s Temperature

Years ago at a seminar, I learned this simple, yet effective way to find out how things are really going at your company from your people’s point of view. It’s one of the best tools I’ve ever used in relating with team members. It helps you keep in better touch with your employees, finding out where their morale stands and what they’re learning, and provides you with valuable input on how we can all get better.

It’s called the 10-15 Report, and it goes like this.

Frequency:
I do this once a month at the most and quarterly at the least, with all key people, including Crew leaders, Supervisors, Business Developers, Office People and Managers.

For new key employees and interns I do it once a week for the first 90 days.

How it works:
Just like the name of the report implies, it should take employees no more than 10 minutes to fill out and then only about 15 minutes to review with their direct-report supervisor. Remember, the point of this is to gauge your employees’ responses and to help prevent any minor issues from becoming major ones.

The Report includes 3 simple questions and asks for the following input:

My morale this week is _____________________________________

The most important thing I have learned this (week, month or quarter) is
________________________________________________________

I would like to make this recommendation or suggestion to the company: ________________________________________________________

Take 15 minutes of uninterrupted time to sit down and review the feedback. Decide on some action steps, if any are needed, to help resolve or address issues brought up, and set a time for the next report/review. Watch the magic begin.

The 10-15 Report is a fantastic people tool. I guarantee you’ll find that by LISTENING to your employees and learning where they stand, you’ll open the door to better communication.

You’ll also discover a great source of new ideas on how your organization can improve!!