Better here than gone

When we last talked to Clayton Graham in August of 2020, he was on the brink of taking over his father’s company, Sundance Landscape Maintenance in Arizona.

He was looking forward to putting his stamp on the company, growing it to heights it has never been.

Well, as you will find out starting on page 16, that’s still the case, but not the way Graham originally thought.

After taking on too much responsibility, he had a health scare and a wake-up call. As owners and leaders of your company, you need to remember it can’t be all work 24/7. Your company’s health is important, but not so important that you sacrifice your own health. You’re no help to your employees if you are permanently unavailable to guide the ship.

In more than 10 years of talking to successful landscape business owners, one main ingredient of success I hear a lot is delegation. They detail how their business went to the next level and they became a better leader when they figured out what they should be focused on, but more importantly, the responsibilities they could rely on others to handle.

One way I’ve heard to better delegate is to make a list of everything you do at your business. Then, start to rank those from most to least important. Work from the bottom on what you can pass off to someone else and think about who would be good to complete that task. If you aren’t certain who would be a good fit, discuss the options with your managers or with a few people whose opinions you value.

Another approach may be to figure out what you are good at and areas where you struggle. Focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. You may be an ace at selling jobs and connecting with customers, but a mess when it comes to organization or watching the numbers. I’ve also heard from a number of leaders about the value of hiring an assistant and how that freed them to focus on the important stuff.

Remember, just because you are at the top of the org chart doesn’t mean you have to be heavily involved in every spot on that chart…because it could kill you.  — Brian Horn