You have to prune to grow

It’s spring! Over the past month, I’ve spent time in the garden getting it ready for spring and cleaning it up. As I pruned and planted, I was reminded how applicable the principles of gardening are to leadership.

Here’s a few gardening rules that definitely cross over into managing and leading yourself or a team:

1. Stick to the garden plan

   In past years, I had got excited and planted a number of plants on top of other already planted beds. This led to a garden with haphazard appearances. Sticking to a few key plants that were planned out was much better. When you’re leading an organization, this is also true- you cannot focus on 100 “priorities” at once. Stick to a few items!
   
   Coaching question: What are 3 things that you’re doing that are NOT part of your strategy/plan? Are they actually a good idea, or are they haphazard additions?
   
   

2. Prune to grow

   The first time I primmed back my plants according to instructions, I was certain we’d never see flowers or fruits again. Turns out that plants that are pruned appropriately end up growing stronger, and bear more fruit the next year. Unpruned plants are stalky, with none of the fruits of their struggles to show for it. With leaders, we often say yes to far too many things, or do way too much. This leads to a leader that is exhausted, and can’t get through the next season. Cut back on the quantity of expectations to be able to achieve stronger results.
   
   Coaching question: what can you prune in this season that will make room for new growth?
   
   

3. Too much of a good thing is not a good thing

   When I first started gardening, there were day lillies everywhere. They took over all the flower beds, choking out all the other plants. I had to remove at least ½ of them, and get them out of places they’d spilled over into, even though I love them. Hopefully you do get to do work you enjoy, but too much is still overwhelming makes the stuff we enjoy less enjoyable. Even if I love veterinary medicine, if I see so many patients that I am pressed for time and it spills over to other areas of my life so I can’t do anything well, it’s no longer a good thing!
   
   Coaching question: Do you have areas where you have too much of a good thing? How could you make sure you have the right amount?
   
   

4. There’s always next season

   The greatest thing about gardening, working with living things, is that almost everything grows back, and almost nothing is permanent. Can’t get that perennial pruned back? You can get to it in the spring. Didn’t get the leaves picked up? There’ll be some more work on the lawn in the spring, but the grass will still be there. Thinned out the lilies too much? They will come back in the spring, or you can add more with a trip to the garden center. Very few things are un-solvable in living gardens. People, teams, and work-life balance are the same. We won’t get it right all the time as leaders, or in interactions with others. Taking time to understand what we didn’t get right, making amends, and trying again is the essence of continual improvement, and seasonality.
   
   Coaching question: what is reasonable in this season, and what will you leave for next year?

What do you think? Have you pruned back to grow, reduced your “too much of a good thing” areas or regrouped after a mistake? Or have I spent too much time in the weeds?