Well, Friday this week marks the official start of winter in my part of the world. Now I have to admit that in Brisbane, Queensland we don’t often get frost and we certainly don’t get snow but it does at least got colder this time of year. We are technically “sub tropical”. That doesn’t mean [...]

Tags: Change management, employee engagement, engagement, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, www.letsgrow.com.au

It is very easy as a leader, or a gardener, to get caught up in the details and forget what it is you are trying to achieve in the big picture. We can easily obsess about minor issues, like the weeding or pruning when, from a distance, everything looks fine. We just need to take [...]

Tags: Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, Workplace gardening, www.letsgrow.com.au

I have recently gone hi tech in my office. Not only do I have an iPhone and a laptop but I now also have an iPad. One of the main reasons for getting it was to allow me to read ebooks when I travel and to take notes when I attend professional development events, amongst [...]

Tags: Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, leadership apps, Leadership skills, Support for leaders, www.letsgrow.com.au

One of the regular columnists in “Gardening Australia magazine” is Michael McCoy and in a recent edition his article on being ruthless started like this … “Managing a garden is like coaching a diversely skilled footy team, or chairing a committee made up of widely different personalities. In both cases there are assertive, pushy characters, [...]

Tags: Change management, difficult conversations, disengaged employees, Fierce conversations, Leadership and management