In advance of GIE+EXPO, I’m going to depart from my normal column crammed with tables, charts and formulas to share a few thoughts on leadership and responsibility to our people and industry. If you live long enough, you get to see everything all over again. What I mean is that in business, there are predictable patterns that shape the future.... read more
David J. Frank Landscape Contracting, Germantown, WI, hired John Joestgen as its chief operating officer (COO), a newly created role. read more
During the early years in my career, I learned and mastered all the field level skills that helped me become a landscape technician. When I started my own business, I realized my field skills weren’t enough to make me a successful business owner. At first, things flowed smoothly, but as the business grew, things began to get out of control.... read more
The value we deliver happens in the field, on our customers’ sites. Unfortunately, the more you advance, grow and mature in this industry, the further away from the field you get. If you advance high enough, the only field exposure you get is what you can see from the conference room window. But that doesn’t change the fact that most... read more
You’re being watched. No, not by the NSA, or some other clandestine agency. It’s your employees, and your customers, who have their eyes on you. They watch what you do and know it’s much more important than whatever you say. As a leader, you set the tone: Good, bad or indifferent. When you’re a leader of a business, branch or... read more
You can’t lead from behind a desk—or over the telephone. If you want to be a leader, you need to personally look at the front-line reality in your business, where your employees meet your company’s customers. In the military, it’s what leaders would call learning the “ground truth,” which can be very different than what you’d otherwise assume by relying... read more
