What does Pre-emergent Weed control and Team Culture Have in Common?
How does a professional turf expert stop weeds from growing in their turf-lawn? How do amazing companies stop negative employees from influencing the company culture? There are a lot of similarities. Let’s explore this a little further.
To stop weeds from growing on a high-performance field or fairway, the turf is treated with a pre-emergent weed control product at critical times of the year. The pre-emergent’s job is to stop weeds from ever starting to grow in the turf grass. It doesn’t allow them to take root in grass to compete for the much-needed nutrients designed for the turf.
There are key times of year the turf must be treated with the pre-emergent. Miss the windows of application and the pre-emergent doesn’t work because the weeds have already rooted in and started growing. The application has to be scheduled; one can’t wait too late. By doing this one practice, it saves turf professionals, time, money and provides the manager an opportunity to get the results needed. Ask any turf expert and they will agree that this one investment is well worth the time and money.
However, if the turf leader decides to skip the application of pre-emergent weed control it will not be noticed right away. It will take months, when all the new weeds start to show up and compete with the good grass. Keep ignoring doing the pre-emergent application and the quality of the turf will diminish drastically. Once the weeds start growing it becomes more costly to manage and the quality of the turfgrass suffers. At this point, the manicured turf is scarred by tall out of place weeds reducing the quality overall. Mowing crews have to now mow more often in an attempt to keep a manicured look, driving up costs, not to mention the wear on the turf and equipment.
If you have been leading people for any amount of time, you probably see the parallel I’m making, but allow me to explore a few with you. One, leaving the turf alone to grow great results is not an option. To get high end results with your turf or your team, you have to plan for it over time. It really does not “just happen.” Second, management consistency matters. New employees are influenced by the culture they work in and having a culture full of unmanaged weeds makes it hard for the new employee to grow to their full potential. Avoiding team development is like avoiding pre-emergent weed control. You can do it, but in time the weeds will grow stronger, taller, and will choke out the good turf, causing everyone more work. The weeds will control the culture.
Great leaders plan to grow the culture they need to produce the results they expect. Positive cultures produce great teams and great teams produce great results. If you have inherited a lawn or department with weeds, it takes time and consistency to get where you want to be, but you must start the process. Great companies with great cultures are consistent, pro-active and fervent in growing the results they expect.
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
~John Wooden
