I recently spent the weekend interstate at the house of a friend who had a new garden put in a year ago when she and her husband built a new house. This involved approximately 400 individual plants going into the ground. She is not what you would call an avid gardener so she paid to [...]

Tags: employee engagement, Employee retention, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and gardening, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, Leading is like gardening, New employees, Recruitment, Workplace gardening, www.letsgrow.com.au

Senior leaders often want to save themselves time and energy by hiring in people for their leadership team who are already skilled and experienced, believing this is the most efficient and effective way to go. I disagree. I believe that growing your own leadership talent pool is far more effective and efficient than bringing in [...]

Tags: emerging leaders, employee engagement, engagement, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and gardening, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, Leading is like gardening, New leaders, Outsourcing, www.letsgrow.com.au

According to a Canadian paper in the science publication “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA” trees have a molecular memory of how they were raised in a nursery which they carry with them even when transplanted hundreds of kilometres away. Researchers say this “nursery effect” might explain a tree’s response to [...]

Tags: Employee retention, Gen Y, induction, Karen Schmidt, Recruitment, www.letsgrow.com.au

My strawberries keep going missing. Just as they are about to reach the point where they are ripe and ready to pick, someone or something is getting in before me and eating them. It’s happened more than once now and I’m getting a bit frustrated. Whilst I wouldn’t put it past my neighbours to do [...]

Tags: employee engagement, Employee retention, engagement, Engaging conversations, Fierce conversations

The bargain table at your local nursery can look like a really good idea as you wander past. You think to yourself “I can revive this plant, it’s not beyond help”. But invariably you get it home and it dies.  Sure, you occasionally hit the jackpot and see it come back to life but if [...]

Tags: Recruitment, risk assessment