Serious gardeners love trying to improve on nature. Some spend a lifetime developing new varieties of their favourite plant, hoping to add in something they perceive nature has left out (and potentially be recognised for their achievement). For example, rose breeders are obsessed with breeding plants that have more flowers, bigger flowers or flowers with [...]

Tags: employee engagement, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and gardening, Leadership skills, Leading is like gardening, Working with strengths, Workplace gardening, www.letsgrow.com.au

  Some plants like company and really only look their best when massed together in a garden bed. Other plants need to stand alone, giving them plenty of space to grow and really shine. We call this second group “specimen” plants. They serve as focal points in landscape design. An example would be a flowering [...]

Tags: Employee morale, Employee retention, Job roles, Leadership and management, Productivity, Team work

I was watching one of those nature documentaries narrated by Sir David Attenborough on the weekend. He was discussing the life cycle of various animals and how they rely on plants to survive. One of the interesting facts he mentioned was that grass is considered THE most resilient plant on the planet. It was in [...]

Tags: Employee Communication, Employee morale, engagement, Engaging conversations, Organisational culture, resilience at work

  I recently saw a piece on the “Better Homes and Gardens” TV show with Graham Ross who raised an interesting point when planting a tree. We normally create a round hole in which to place the round tree root ball, as all the plants we buy have been grown in round pots. This can [...]

Tags: engagement, Job roles, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, square peg in a round hole

Are you one of those gardeners that like to keep everything looking neat and tidy in your patch? Do you get frustrated when a plant grows faster than the rest upsetting your symmetry? Well, perhaps you need to learn to see it as a good sign rather than a nuisance. You might just have a [...]

Tags: Employee retention, Fierce leadership, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, Productivity, tall poppy syndrome, www.letsgrow.com.au