The 75/25 split: Leadership strategies for owners and landscaping management teams

A business owner from Virginia called me to talk about leadership, accountability, roles and responsibilities. Based upon the organizational chart, the company has a typical hierarchical structure, with the maintenance manager and construction manager overseeing their specific field activities, the office manager coordinating administrative and accounting tasks, and a sales manager supervising marketing, social media and sales duties.

However, the owner has developed a time management problem due to his unconscious routine of being “too hands-on” when it comes to his landscaping management team’s performance, usurping their decisions, meddling in their processes and eroding their leadership capital with their subordinates. This approach is fundamentally counter-productive in that it confuses employees, diffuses supervisory responsibility and complicates the company culture.

Who would you listen to: Your supervisor or the owner? We all know the answer. We all have been there. I know the owner cares. I know the owner is a nice person. I know the owner respects his managers. We all know the owner is the problem.

To resolve this inveterate problem, I explained the 75/25 split to the Virginia owner. In general, the owner, CEO or company president should spend approximately 75% of his/her time addressing external issues beyond the boundaries of the company, with the remaining 25% of the time spent on issues internal to the company. By definition, the owner is the leader, the visionary, the strategist. Focusing on internal, operational or administrative tasks is not leading, developing a vision, nor being strategic. That is called landscaping management. Managers manage; the person at the top of the organizational chart is not a manager.

By way of metaphor, the owner is driving the car with the primary goal of looking forward through the windshield charting the optimal path toward the desired destination. There is only one driver. If the driver is preoccupied with the stereo system, cell phone apps or other distractions in the car, only bad things will happen. The driver must stay focused on the road, the path and the future location of the car.

The owner must devote at least 75% of their attention onto issues like: meeting with prospective clients, talking with vendors, becoming involved in local organizations, interviewing key managerial candidates, having lunch with valuable clients, attending conferences, meeting with the accountant, working with a professional coach, networking, reading, thinking and planning.

Case in point: At one of my previous employment positions in the green industry, the general manager spent the first hour of his day, every day, reading the local newspaper to stay abreast of community events, beyond the walls of company headquarters. That’s the line of sight the driver of the car must focus on; not what is in the glove compartment, trunk or backseat.

The remaining 25% of the owner’s time should address internal issues like conducting weekly one-on-one meetings with key staff, coaching managers toward goal achievement, tracking results, driving accountability, role modeling the company culture and even handing out paychecks to field employees.

By contrast, managers should have a 25/75 split; addressing external boundary-spanning topics 25% of their time, while managing internal departmental execution 75% of their time. For example, they should spend two hours a day considering external issues like reviewing competitors’ jobs, making calls to potential vendors, attending technology workshops, interviewing supervisory or foremen candidates, as well as conducting relevant reading or research that can broaden their awareness of a proactive approach to their company’s competitive environment.

Conversely, managers must spend the lion’s share of their work time devoted to improving internal efficiency and monitoring fundamentals indicative of sustained department success. To be clear, this internal focus is not tantamount to being office bound. In fact, managers must be visible: welcoming employees in the morning, conducting daily huddles, clarifying daily or weekly priorities, visiting jobsites, developing training programs and most of all, delegating sufficient tasks to appropriate subordinates to develop their own underutilized skillset.

The complementary coverage between the owner’s priorities and their manager’s responsibilities, ensures everything gets done without redundancy. By force of nature, this model requires that managers adopt a more holistic and entrepreneurial approach to their respective departments, since they know the owner will not be looking over their shoulder. Moreover, this method promotes landscaping management development and eliminates functional compression while maximizing labor efficiency and communication effectiveness.

By the way, do you know the best way to know your company’s desired destination six months from now? Have the owner start looking through the windshield.

Cream of the Crop features a rotating panel from the Harvest Group, a landscape business consulting company. Steven Cesare, PH. D. is industrial psychologist and can be reached at steve@harvestlandscapeconsulting.com.