What gardening teaches us about people management

My garden is at its lush height right now.  To get it there, of course, it's also the season where I invest a big part of my free time into it.  As I prune, mow, deadhead and water, it occurs to me that plants aren't so different from people.  They can be prickly and problematic, but get them in the right place and figure out how to care for them, and they reward you with glory.

Here are three ways gardening mirrors leadership.

ONE:  The right growing conditions.  Different plants need different things.  The hardiest lavender, thriving in chalky, free-draining soil, won't last long if you move it to waterlogged clay.  Every plant is different; sometimes they even surprise you by thriving where, technically, they're not supposed to.  There's something about the tiny micro-climate around them that works.  The longer I garden, the more I'm convinced that … no matter how much you research … there's an element of trial and error until a plant is happy.  And then, once it is, leave it there and let it thrive.  Let the plant tell you where it wants to be.  Its much the same with people. Everyone needs something different, adds different things to the team.  If you try to make everyone the same, "plant" them into the same rules and working conditions, you'll destroy as many as you allow to thrive.  Experiment, work to understand individual needs, and get them where they need to be.

TWO:  Fertilise.  Some of the strongest performers of the plant world need a lot of energy to strut their stuff.  They suck it from the soil around them and, if you don't top up that soil with more nutrients, their performance will decline year-on-year.  So it is with human motivation.  And, often, it's the stars of the team that need the most love and encouragement.  Don't assume they'll just keep delivering "because it's their job".  Figure out what they need to thrive, and make sure you're topping it up.

THREE:  Clear the weeds.  A weed is, quite simply, any plant that grows where you don't want it to be.  It's often a native, well adapted to your conditions, and a thug that crowds out everything else if you don't control it.  Dock is my current nightmare.  Incredibly useful if you're looking for relief from stinging nettles, but otherwise a leafy monster with a taproot that's tough to eradicate.  Corporate weeds can be anything that grabs an unfair proportion of time and thus sucks the life out of the office.   These can be people who throw off the balance of the team, unpopular projects, or too much process and admin thrown on a team without explaining why it's necessary.  Your job, as the head gardener, is to spot those weeds and stop them before they have a chance to flourish.

Watch the tap roots.  They can be nasty.