Trim your vines
This past weekend I did a "honey do" project of clearing dead vines off part of our fencing.
As leaders, are you clearing the dead vines from your organization throughout the year, as needed? They choke out profits like crazy...
This is a picture of the vines before I cleared them out. They were actually much worse than it looks.
Leadership "Dead Vine" Examples
1. Sanctuary
If you are allowing other activities to crowd-out your ability to have a quiet time weekly (preferably daily), then you are less focused on your most important priorities each week. Clear out the "dead vines" crowding your schedule and your freedom will allow you to better achieve your growth objectives.
2. People
All of your employees have some value, or you would not have hired them in the first place. However, some might not be performing at an optimum level, or worse. You may even have one (or more) that are toxic. You will waste hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping for miracle behavioral change in a poor performing or toxic employee. I have never seen it happen in a toxic employee. This is particularly true after you have tried to work with them to improve and they have failed.
The #1 hated job of a manager is to fire anyone... even someone who is toxic. However if we do not remove toxins and growing viruses from our body (company) then we die, or exist in a severely weakened state. Respectfully, empathetically, quickly, and properly terminate employees when it is clear they are hurting your organization. These "dead vines" choke out productive workers, and in some cases, motivate some of your good team members to leave.
NOTE: Letting a poor performing employee go is often the best thing for them too!
3. Process
When you know a process is weak or broken, work with your team to schedule its improvement. Do not procrastinate. Do not put it on the to-do list that lives forever. Schedule/delegate the work now, or put it in the "fridge" (better analogy than a "parking lot") with a specific date to schedule its repair. Set a reminder to check your fridge on time and bring it out to be "cooked" and fuel your growth. Missing or poor processes allow your people to get tangled up unnecessarily. Clear them out.
4. Habits
We all have habits that are unproductive. The challenge for most of us is not acknowledging them, but defining and committing to a step-by-step action plan with accountability to overpower a bad habit with a new one. If you are not working on overcoming a bad habit then you are allowing at least one to thrive. It is stealing time, money, health, relationships, everything from you. Bad habits are dead vines crowding out your ability to live your dreams. Focus. Clear them out one-by-one. Get help if you need it.
5. Relationships
Most people do not have many, if any, deep, caring friendships. When we die, the ONLY true asset we have is our relationships. If this is a challenge for you there are options, but you have to comprehend your relational habits and overcome fears. There are church and secular adventure groups. Nonprofits involved in causes that are meaningful to you. Exercise clubs of all varieties. (One of our developers is a CrossFit fanatic BECAUSE it is a group activity.) Get rid of the dead vines (unhealthy relationships) and work on building deeper relationships before it is too late.
TIP: If you want to build a relationship with someone, then serve them. If they are the leader of a nonprofit, then serve the nonprofit. It may take some time, but your service creates the opportunity for a healthy relationship to sprout, grow, and mature.
Do what makes more profits. Profit more from what you do.
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