Over the weekend, awakened early by act of dogs, I found myself working through several household chores. After the recent heavy rains, I had to clear the gutters, scrub the entry way and then I found myself in the backyard. The recent precipitation had left the ground soft. Already filthy from the other activities, I decided to do some weeding.
In our backyard, there are a couple of very large planters.The rain, cooler temperatures and decent sunshine had conspired to create a significant growth of weeds throughout the various planters. I figured I would have to pull almost everything out of them, leaving them essentially bare.
As I started clawing through the shaggy growth, I found that there was plenty of weeds to be pulled. However, I couldn't be indiscriminate with my destruction - there were plenty of flowers, growth and plants that were worthy of being saved. And, as the piles of weeds grew beside the planters, the beauty started to emerge. Delightful colors of white, yellow, pink and purple started to be able to stand proudly on their own - free of the overwhelming, overshadowing growth of the weeds.
It's funny how the mind works. As I worked through the physical, mindless labor, my mind was free to wander. And, it connected the flower and weeds to the parallels that I see in the professional business environment. As management, we often complain about the slow progress of a project or wonder why morale isn't better. We wonder why we don't have more game changers, more super stars. Well, perhaps the flowers are just overwhelmed by weeds.
Weeds flourish in harsh environments, flowers don't. So when you are frustrated by the progress of your team, you have to ask yourself, "are we providing the right environment?" That means, paying attention to behavior which dampens communication, enthusiasm and productivity. No one person, no matter how talented can be allowed to exhibit behavior that hurts the company. These types of things can appear subtlety or overtly, in little and in big ways. And it's hard sometimes to have an objective measure in which to gauge just how well we are doing on something that's entirely subjective.
But at the end of the day, do you have a flower bed you can be proud of, or are you just looking past the weeds to see a glimmer of color, of hope? Absent the harsh, the ugly and the bitter, the bright colors and shapes have a chance to shine. Sometimes all you have to do is pull out the weeds and the flowers are there.
Weeds flourish in harsh environments, flowers don't. So when you are frustrated by the progress of your team, you have to ask yourself, "are we providing the right environment?" That means, paying attention to behavior which dampens communication, enthusiasm and productivity. No one person, no matter how talented can be allowed to exhibit behavior that hurts the company. These types of things can appear subtlety or overtly, in little and in big ways. And it's hard sometimes to have an objective measure in which to gauge just how well we are doing on something that's entirely subjective.
But at the end of the day, do you have a flower bed you can be proud of, or are you just looking past the weeds to see a glimmer of color, of hope? Absent the harsh, the ugly and the bitter, the bright colors and shapes have a chance to shine. Sometimes all you have to do is pull out the weeds and the flowers are there.
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