Throughout 2020 many folks have picked up new hobbies galore. Baking bread, knitting, cycling, and running have all seen an ever-increasing number of individuals taking a swing at something fresh. An additional hobby that has seen an increase is gardening. From everyday spices to peppers, tomatoes to lettuce, an army of eager green thumbs have emerged. As plants begin to flourish, there are times in which to ensure they are healthy that they must be trimmed back. They must be pruned. Without pruning they will grow wild, sometimes to their own detriment. Every would-be gardener must learn the lesson that pruning is a vital part of growth. Chris Evans recently spoke at length about this topic in a recent episode of the Traffic and Funnels Show.
“My wife is a plant lady. She loves plants. She loves flowers. There are plants all over my house and she's always tending these plants in these flowers. She's always pruning, always cutting. She is nurturing the process of growth and to properly nurture the process of growth, you must prune. You must prune the things that could potentially hinder or keep further growth from happening. And that's why pruning is such a necessary process.
I wanted to bring you this word of encouragement and reminder on this beautiful, crisp fall day that you've got to prune in your life and in your business. Things that have at one point brought value to the ecosystem may reach a time where you have to let those things go.
But sometimes we fear doing this
We get used to seeing that ‘stem’ or ‘that branch’, to continue using the metaphor. But it can come to a point where that previously healthy growth could hinder you and could actually bring death. We've had instances recently where we decided to let someone go, remove someone from the organization and so it's wild. We sometimes have this notion that we should just let things stay where they are. But pruning is a vital part of growth. It’s healthy. So I just want you to remember this forsake not the process of pruning in your business. Maybe it's employees, maybe it's things in the business, maybe it's processes, maybe it's people in your life.
How do you decide who or what to prune?
There are a lot of times as leaders, we don't want to fail our people. It's a natural instinct and one I think is good and valuable. When contemplating pruning a person specifically, you have to ask yourself the right questions to ensure sure that you're following the right process and you're doing the right thing for people.
The first question I'm asking myself is: What's the attitude?
What's the value that they're bringing through their attitude? Is it positive or is it negative? Are they a fountain or are they a drain? Are they a plus or are they a minus? Attitude is very, very difficult to fix. If someone has an amazing attitude, they're positive, they're showing up; to me that is a big indicator that, they're probably just in the wrong seat on the bus. So if they're bringing positive energy and that greater foundation of attitude, then I'm way more bought in. Maybe that ‘branch’ gets pruned, but not cut away entirely.
Are They Showing Up?
If they're showing up, they've got the culture, they've got the same morale, then the next part for me as a leader, I might have them in the wrong placements. Where else can I move this person? I can place this person where they're bringing value to the organization, but they're also finding value for their own life.
As leadership, this is service to your people. This is a service to your ecosystem. First with your team, with yourself, and then your clients. Do not ever be afraid of the process of pruning. Just make sure that you develop your own processes for asking the right questions. Ensure it’s time to cut this small branch or these leaves. This also applies to teams. Are they hindering growth or is it enabling growth? Is it full of weeds and or is it toxic? Is it suffocating growth in your ecosystem or is it helping? Hopefully, this will give you some food for thought.
Closing thoughts
If you're in a process where, you know, maybe you need to prune in your organization, in your business, your team, maybe personally, maybe friends, maybe family, to make sure that you're not being smothered, suffocated by weeds and things that are dead, that are just lingering. That's never, ever good for you for your people, your people's people. So take it, think about it.”
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In your service,
Chris
