The "Secret" to a Thriving Business: Leadership

 

“The only way to improve an organization
 is to grow and improve the leaders.”
–John C. Maxwell

“What is the secret?”, you may have wondered. “Why do some organizations grow and thrive, and others stay stagnant, or shrink?”

The “secret” almost always comes down to Leadership.

This can be an uncomfortable truth, especially if your business, or organization, or PCOC district, is shrinking. While there will sometimes be external factors beyond our control (Covid, as an example) which may temporarily wreak havoc on the best leadership and plans, we would be remiss to not consider the impact of Leadership and Culture on each district’s success.

I was fortunate to be able to participate in our recent Expo meeting down in Anaheim. While there, I heard my friend and Leadership Guru, Garland Vance, and his equally awesome wife Dorothy, speak on Winning the War for Employee Retention and Engagement. While their info was directly pertinent to growing a business, the principles are much the same for our districts. They talked about 4 victories we must win in our war with stubborn status quo and mediocrity. I thought it might prove helpful to explore these concepts and how they apply to our individual districts.

1.      Generate Clarity – Our District members want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to know where we are going, and why it’s important. They want to understand how to get there, and what their role is in the journey. I’d recommend starting each District meeting with our ‘Why?’ by reading the Mission Statement and discussing the importance of the valuable work we do.

2.      Facilitate Community – People want to do something important with those they trust and care about. What can we do at the District level to facilitate this type of community?

3.      Create Culture – Unintentional culture inevitably becomes toxic culture. We must be intentional and purposeful about creating a healthy culture. Culture is created by those things that we recognize and reward and celebrate. But it is also created by those things we allow or tolerate. This would be a great discussion for the leaders in each District.

4.      Developing Leaders – Is there a plan in your District to develop leaders? If you’ve had the same Chairperson for more than two years, it might prove advantageous to create a succession plan. One of the long-term goals of each new Chairperson should be to grow and develop and groom their replacement so that each District has a new Chairperson every two years or so. This accomplishes two huge victories- Leaders don’t get burned out from being in the same role for countless years, and other members are afforded the opportunity to grow as a leader in their District.

I was reading the Summer 2022 issue of PCOC’s “The Voice”, and I enjoyed the interview with Greg Augustine, our new President. In it, Greg said he has 3 main goals. Number 1 was to strengthen the Districts. Number 2 was to grow PCOC membership. Being purposeful and intentional about accomplishing the 4 victories discussed above will ensure we do both.

If you have Leadership ideas you’d like to share, or a topic you’d like to see explored in a future PCOC Leadership Lens, I’d love to hear from you.

All the best!
Travis Mickel
Regional Manager
Clark Pest Control
(831) 262-8025
tmickel@clarkpest.com