“Everything has seasons, and we have to be able to recognize when something’s time has passed and be able to move into the next season. Everything that is alive requires pruning as well, which is a great metaphor for endings.” — Henry Cloud
As part of our horticulture services landscape maintenance package at Atlas, we suggest to our clients 2 to 4(depending on expectations from client) shrub and ornamental tree prunings per season for our clients. If we didn’t, their garden beds would get out of control!
Businesses thrive and grow just like a garden, and it needs the same care and attention as a planting bed does.
If you don’t prune your organization (of bad-fit employees, clients, or members) you will end up with a gangly mess that will eventually suffocate itself.
As Atlas was growing incredibly fast year after year during our first 5 years(we had seen a solid 18-20% growth each year), we found ourselves taking on any and every client that wanted us to provide services for them. It didn’t matter where they were in most parts of Michigan, or what scope of outdoor service they were expecting, we were trying to find a way to get-er-done. The same was true for employees. If they had experience in our trade, they were the first application we pulled from the stack to interview(if we actually even interviewed them before having them start work). Because we felt like we had to. We got to a point where we couldn’t accept new clients because our routes were “full”. We also weren’t focusing on hiring for the right reason (Character AND Competence and cultivate the skill from within).. Oh, we were full alright. Full of a garden of clients and toxic team members that needed to be pruned so that new, healthy, fresh growth could come in! We began to prune the clients that no longer fit due to geography… Our next move was to restructure the service packages, and again prune clients who didn’t fit. It was a scary feeling, but in 2018, we started off with the thinnest our “garden” of clients had been. Actually reducing our capacity by two full crews. It was not even 2-3 months into the Spring season and we had not only rebuilt our routes up with better clients that fit with the level of service we wanted to provide and in the prime areas we wanted to serve, and yet again had a very full garden.
Over the last 2 years, demand for real estate services, vehicle and home buying, all areas of construction and renovation, and premium home / commercial services is at an all time high nationwide(pretty much every trade). While the competent labor force is at an all time low to try to attract and retain.
Now, more than ever we have been pruning and cultivating. Since doing this, our focus, service quality, sales momentum, and overall Team culture and morale has continued to grow! Since seeing the difference this made for our organization, we will continue to do this year after year to keep our gardens fresh with only the healthiest clients, and also our Team with only THE BEST players that fit our Credo, Mission, Vision and that will honor our Values in the highest regard.
I’ll land the plane with this… Keeping your garden pruned and fresh is a wise move. Every couple years, a successful organization should evolve to the point where the bottom 5% of clients and the lowest performing employees will not fit anymore. You can’t have clients and all the same employees for life if you want a healthy evolving / growing culture.
As we are freshly kicking off the New Year, take some time to identify those that no longer fit your vision (due to poor: margins, toxic behavior, service mix, design, geography, or fill-in-the-blank with what you may based on your organization.) And pursue a strategy of “FIX / REMOVE / FILL.”
Start now, and you’ll be able to kick off the year with a more focused growth strategy for 2022!
Be blessed y’all