I was recently weeding the gardens around my house when my neighbor came by to see me. “The weeds are stronger than the plants” my neighbor said, “they take over my garden”.
This exchange made me think about the similarity between weeds and leadership. In business the naysayers (the weeds) can seem overwhelming at times, but we as leaders must defend and be the force for our people (the garden).
There are two aspects we should focus on as leaders, how our garden looks to our people and to others.
Sometimes we can ignore the weeds and still get rid of them before they ruin our garden, but what long-term effect does that have on our garden? Some of the most toxic business environments I’ve ever seen had people leaving because the weeds took over, even when leadership portrayed a healthy garden. Our people can see the weeds and are affected by their propagation. When left unattended, our people leave for a new garden.
As our garden becomes overtaken by weeds, others take notice, like my neighbor did in my yard! This minimizes our credibility and brings into question our ability as leaders. They’ll always be weeds in the garden, our job as leaders is to deal with them while focusing on the overall health of the garden.
So, how can leaders keep from being overwhelmed?
– Ask for help getting rid of the weeds (our people, our associates and our friends are willing to help)
– Remove the weeds a little at a time (spending an hour a day pulling weeds is better than spending a whole day and being overwhelmed)
– Focus on the garden and not the weeds (big picture leaders can stand a few little weeds hanging around)
The bottom line; knowing we can be overwhelmed and getting ahead of it makes us better, more resilient leaders!