Superstars and stand-outs

Who is the most valuable member of your company? Is it the owner, who makes all the strategic decisions? Is it the operations manager who makes sure the crews are all present and accounted for? Is it the technician who makes the applications? Is it the crew member who runs the zero-turn? Or is it the office manager who makes sure the bills go out (and get paid) on time?

Unfortunately, there’s not a good answer to that question for you, or any other business. I constantly tell the team here at L&L that none of us could do this work without all of us. The editors, salespeople, circulation team, designers and production and administrative team members – essentially everyone whose name is in that box below this column – all make this magazine possible, and if you took any of them away, we couldn’t put the magazine out.  

We focus a lot on the top level of your company – how you as an owner, president or executive can improve, grow and thrive in an often competitive and sometimes cutthroat market. But as contractors across the country continue to bemoan a lack of qualified help, we wanted to do something more. The labor crunch is a very real problem, but here in the L&L offices, we’d rather a light a candle than curse the darkness. So we’re launching a new program: The Lawn & Landscape Employee of the Year Awards, which honors the folks in the field who make the industry run.

I tell the team at L&L that none of us could do this without all of us. If you took any of them away, we couldn’t print the magazine.

During the next month, we’re collecting stories about the best employees in the industry – technicians, account managers, salespeople, office managers, crew leaders and foremen – and the impact they’ve had on your company.

If you have an employee who has gone above and beyond in their position and should be acknowledged, now is your chance to have them publicly recognized here in our magazine.

Send me two to three paragraphs at cbowen@gie.net explaining why your employee should be chosen. Your entry should include concrete examples or stories of how this person has improved your company either culturally or financially, and how they have set a good example for other employees. Deadline is March 11.

– Chuck Bowen