The Day I Laid Off Half My Staff
It was one of the worst days of my life. I had to lay off over half of my landscaping team.
We had overextended our reach, and the business couldn’t sustain it. I had over hired
for the contracts we maintained. It wasn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet — it was
families, stories, and lives.
Failure forced me to look deeper. I began asking myself, what kind of leader do I want to
be?
This painful moment became the soil where something better could grow. It forced me
to be a caring leader, but in a different way. If I cared about my team, I would make sure
we were efficient, competitive so my people did not get laid off. We would need to give
our customers great service at reasonable prices. Care enough to get engaged in the
process and people.
Dan Miller once said, “What we see as failure may actually be progress.”
Through this season, I stopped managing with just my gut feeling and started
leading with numbers and with empathy.
Mistakes don’t define you — how you respond to them does.
Embrace your mistakes,
Jeff
