Pre-emergence: Work Now For a Green Tomorrow

 For every time that I plant a seed,

He said, “Kill it before it grows….”

-    I Shot the Sherriff by Bob Marley

 

It is spring by the calendar.  Is it spring for our economy?  Your business?  What should we be doing NOW as leaders to ensure our future is green and strong? 

This week, I went out to my yard to work and think.  After an unusually rough winter in Portland, I scanned my yard and thought, “what should I be doing here now?”  Weed, seed, feed, and throw down some pre-emergent.  Indeed.  Duh, Melone.  It is the tough work that I do with my clients every day.  It looks a lot like this:

WEED: Toss what does not serve you.  Get lean.  Eliminate dumb processes.  Crank up lower performers or cut them out.  Get down to core business.  Kill business as usual.

FEED:  Engage people.  Recognize creativity, resilience, agility, a will to win.  Celebrate small wins.  “Miracle-Gro” emerging leaders.  Help people see what is possible today.

SEED:  Use this opportunity to plant anew.  Build new ways to grow.  Untap talent that can help you create undiscovered opportunities.  Put people in thriving places.  Build new unlikely partnerships.  Be bold.  Think.  Create.

PRE-EMERGENT:  Stuff that you can do now to grow past the competition…that is my definition of pre-emergent. One of my favorite pre-emergents: learning.  Coolest learning this week: reading Ram Charan’s new book, Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty.  In true Charan form, he offers straight up, go-do-these-now actions such as: be visible, set shorter term milestones, change your company’s psychology, and my favorite: be bold!  Clearly, it is about action.  No, ACTION.

Yeah, it’s been a rough winter.  Green fields await for those who step up NOW.  My prediction: only the BOLD will thrive.  You got BOLD?

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