Growing Weeders Into Leaders

Leadership Lessons from the Ground Level

Jeff McManus

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781683503309
• eBook ISBN: 9781683503323
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

One of America's most accomplished landscaping professionals reveals his methods for cultivating greatness.
 
Nowadays, greatness tends to be measured by shortest or longest times, highest heights, medals won, honors given. But as Aristotle taught us, greatness is what we can do every day, without recognition or reward, for the satisfaction that comes from meeting the challenge, creating a team, and overcoming the odds.
 
Under Jeff McManus's leadership as Director of Landscape Services, the Ole Miss campus has won professional awards—and been cited by Newsweek and Princeton Review as America's "most beautiful campus." In Growing Weeders into Leaders, he relates the principles behind his team's success. It is an entertaining and thoughtful look into the hearts and the workday lives of ordinary people who tapped into their inner greatness in pursuit of a vision. Creating one of America's most beautiful college campuses at the University of Mississippi did not happen overnight and, inside these pages, McManus describes the joys, the defeats, the brilliant problem-solving and the best laid plans that are proven worthless . . . until the bigger picture appears. This is the bigger picture as viewed from the ground level—taking you through the practical applications of empowering people to experience not only what it means to grow outstanding landscapes, but also to grow greatness in themselves and encourage it in others.
 
"A straightforward approach to problem-solving and methods to grow individuals into a team." —Susanne Woodell, CGM Historic Gardens Manager, Biltmore

CHAPTER 1

The Story of Thomas

Cultivating Failure

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

—Henry Ford

At 24 years of age, just out of college, Thomas was hired by a large landscaping corporation to manage a high-end resort in Orlando, Florida. He was as green as the grass for which he was responsible, wide-eyed, and a bit overwhelmed; yet, he proved to be talented in the field. In less than a year, he was recruited by another luxury resort in Miami. The resort was rebuilding and hoping to shed its old ‘70s disco image.

Youngest in his department, Thomas was responsible for overseeing all the landscaping of the magnificent 300-acre resort featuring condominiums, hotels, fine dining, tennis, golf, and a shopping mall.

Yet the resort was also known for its employee theft, highly inefficient production, and challenging labor union. The crew had been left leaderless and on its own to figure out what to do. Territorial turf wars ensued among the staff, club members were getting questionable favors, while some employees could not even be found during the day. Without accountability, everyone did what it took to survive.

Thomas only spoke English in the midst of multilingual workers who talked about him, even while standing right in front of him.

During his naïve, early days of leadership, he was convinced he did not have enough staff to adequately manage all the properties his teams serviced. In a matter of a few months, he increased the size of the crew by 35 percent. He also hired two assistant managers to help provide additional leadership. On paper, it looked good, with plenty of staff, adequate management, and an organizational structure that covered all the areas.

However, the additional staff brought new challenges such as time management, quality control, territorial silo, more people to manage and motivate, more drama, expenses, equipment, uniforms, benefits, more of everything. It was anything but paradise.

To fast-track his lack of plant knowledge in this new tropical climate, Thomas took a night class in horticulture at a nearby community college. He was determined to make the resort property a success and do it quickly. He walked the properties he managed, meeting condo managers, working with vendors, exploring new solutions. Daily, he did one-on-one, in-the-field training with staff. He was always putting out fires, dealing with drama, and constantly creating to-do lists for his staff.

A few months after hiring all the new workers, Thomas got a call from the chief financial officer—a call that brought more bad news. His department was losing money on all the outside contracts. The new hires and additional expenses were busting the budget.

In a rapid response, Thomas worked with leadership and determined that the rates they were charging the customers were too low and needed to be raised. On paper, this looked good to accounting, but the customer base pushed back against the sharp increases. First, one property dropped Thomas’ team, then another, and another, until finally seven properties were lost.

With the loss of multiple maintenance contracts, Thomas was faced with yet a new problem, too many staff. The agonizing decision was made to lay off over half his landscape staff.

The day of the layoffs arrived, and Thomas broke the news to each staff member. He would later reflect that it was one of the worst days of his life, knowing these people and their families would be affected by the loss of their jobs. It was a gut-wrenching day preceded and followed by many sleepless nights.

With the downsized staff, Thomas proceeded to work even longer and harder to make the resort properties a success. Willing to jump in and get his hands dirty, he jumped on a tractor from time to time to assist the crews and help foster a higher morale. He had always been taught not to be afraid to get his hands dirty. But in a union environment, where relationships had not been built between management and the workforce, there were misunderstandings.

“You’re taking away our jobs by being on the tractor,” the union steward complained.

His comment shocked Thomas who was trying to lead by example. He felt betrayed and misunderstood.

Rick Quits

“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”

—Benjamin Franklin

Rick, a star employee, asked Thomas how he liked the seasonal flower bed that he and his crew had just planted. Thomas was excited and thought they had done a good job, but he did not want them to get overconfident. He praised the work but quickly followed it up with a picky, negative comment about a few plants being imperfectly aligned.

Rick looked disappointed. His shoulders slumped as he looked Thomas in the eye and said, “I quit.” He dropped his tools at Thomas’ feet and turned and walked away.

As the rest of the crew stared at him, Thomas felt shocked and embarrassed by what had just happened. Rick was known throughout the company as the “go-to guy” on the site, highly talented with many years of experience, and now on Thomas’ watch, he had quit.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no,” Thomas thought. He wanted to stop Rick, but he let the situation play out.

A day or so later, Rick changed his mind and went back to work. He shared with Thomas what he was hearing not only that day but each day from him.

“It is like we can never please you,” he said. “You always have to be critical of our work, and it really hurts our confidence the way you do it.”

“Ouch,” Thomas thought. This was not easy to hear, so he became defensive but kept silent. But in reflection, he realized Rick was right. As a young manager, Thomas was learning that his words mattered.

Broken

“What we see as failure may actually be progress.”

—Dan Miller, Author, “48 Days to the Work You Love”

Late one night after attending his community college horticulture class, Thomas was driving home alone. Two minutes from home, he fell asleep at the wheel. His car slammed into a large tree in the median strip. No one else was hurt, but Thomas was unconscious, and he was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, he was wearing his seat belt and only suffered minor cuts, a chipped bone in his ankle, and few stitches to the eyebrow.

The next day, a bit groggy, Thomas lay in his hospital bed, staring at the wall, and started to think about work.

After the layoffs, he had received some anonymous hate mail. Doubt about the direction he was going in had begun to worry him. Where was all this going? Was it really worth the price? At times, Thomas felt like it was him versus the crew members, labor against management. He had strived to do the best he could at work, but it was too exhausting.

Thomas recalled the teachings he had learned all his life. He remembered the words of motivational speaker Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want, if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”

Thomas was beginning to take this to heart. Was there a better way to make others feel respected and appreciated? He realized that nothing was going to change unless he changed first. It took time, but slowly Thomas began to pay more attention to the people with whom he worked. He started providing better training sessions that gave them a sense of purpose at work. He started instilling a sense of pride in the team. In time, the landscape team won several state awards and a national award.

He began to view work through the eyes of his staff members and to tie their tasks back to a larger meaning of why they were there working: to provide for themselves and their families, to being a five-star resort. He reminded them that their work set the first impression, that their role was a vital part of the guest experience. Thomas slowly began to create a team where everyone had a role and every role was important. He was beginning to see the bigger picture.

As you probably have already guessed, the reason I know the story of Thomas so well is because I am Thomas: Jeffery Thomas McManus. As you can see, I made a lot of mistakes. Some may call them failures, but I call them my road to progress.

CHAPTER 2

Cultivating Greatness

Vision Has to Have Meaning

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.”

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Author,
“The Little Prince”

I sat in University of Mississippi Chancellor Robert C. Khayat’s office on a beautiful, sunny day in Oxford. I had never met the chancellor in person and wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I want a five-star campus!” he said.

Ah! He knew my background was in hotels and resorts—he was speaking my language! I glanced out the office window, then his eyes caught mine and he nodded. He had a vision for the potential on campus and wanted me to understand. He knew time and neglect had taken their toll on the facilities and landscape of Ole Miss, obscuring the splendor that could be. He wanted me on his team, and by the end of that interview, I knew I had found a new home.

My challenge was clear: Make the Ole Miss landscape the best. It would be the secret to accomplishing Khayat’s other goals such as recruiting and retaining top students, including student-athletes, and top faculty in the research centers and classrooms.

People want to be associated with winners, and prospective students and their parents, visitors, and faculty and staff candidates would connect quickly with a beautifully landscaped campus.

But reaching that goal was going to be challenging. No one in our department had worked in or knew what it meant to have a five-star property. Most were comfortable where they were. Although the system was dysfunctional, it was a system they knew.

One day, while making my morning rounds, I bumped into the chancellor as he was finishing his early morning walk, and I asked him if I could give him a ride back to his home. He agreed. I asked, “What is the best way to get a vision that people will go along with?” Without hesitation he said, “There are four basic steps you need to follow:

1. Know who you are.

2. Know who you want to be.

3. Get buy-in from everyone.

4. Allow for honest and open feedback and disagreement at any time.”

Then he added, “Make the vision big enough to challenge everyone to be the best, to strive for excellence in all they do, to be a leader. Don’t set small goals, and don’t get caught up in feeling sorry for yourself as so many people do. And expect some people to laugh at you. Some people laughed when we first began the process of establishing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter here with the goal of becoming a great American university.” He smiled and nodded. “They’re not laughing now.”

Make Your Vision Stick

“Vision doesn’t stick without constant care and attention.”

—Andy Stanley, Communicator, Author, and Pastor

After my interview with Chancellor Khayat, I knew I wanted to help create a top campus and that we needed a great team of people. But I also knew that getting others to have that same desire would be a challenge. Creating the buy-in was going to be the key, and this would take time.

I wanted to pursue setting a vision, so I gathered more insights from leaders such as Andy Stanley and John Maxwell. I was glad to learn that a vision statement can be short. Stanley said eight words or less is enough, and it doesn’t have to cover everything you do. It needs to be something everyone can relate to, remember, and repeat.

Our landscape team tried several times to develop a vision statement. Year af...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• About the Author
• APPENDIX
• OUR WEEDING LEADERS