Does this gardening incident sound familiar? “My son ran over my rosebush with the lawn mower. I thought for sure it was dead! But to my amazement, it came back stronger and more vibrant than ever.” It seems like most of us have a gardening incident somewhere in our past. Aside from teaching your son to spare the shrubbery, there is a business lesson in this gardening incident, too. It’s about pruning for growth.

It’s arguable that the same vision, hard work, techniques and patience that are required to grow a vibrant garden are also required to grow a vibrant business. Just like gardening, growing a business is a blend of science, art, and practice.

Finding and keeping good people is difficult. As unemployment rates have gone down, this complaint has become more common. Whether it’s tied to a feeling that the younger generation doesn’t fit the workplace or the anguish of watching a great hire crash and burn, getting and keeping great people for your company is usually one of the top frustrations we hear about from business owners.

I’m sorry to say that it may not be economic conditions or the educational system – it may be you. The good news is, this is a huge issue in most companies, so you’re not alone – and it can be fixed!

“Buy-in” is one of those business catchphrases that is so overused, nobody seems to know what it really means anymore.

You already know it’s important for your employees to buy in to what your company is doing. But what does that really mean? We should start by calling buy-in what it really is: emotional engagement. And what is emotional engagement? It’s the “why” of your company and your people.

One of the first things a company implementing EOS does is clearly define what it expects from its employees. They discover three to seven Core Values that define the organization’s culture, and they clearly define everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Those that consistently exhibit the Core Values and excel in their clearly defined roles are “Right People in the Right Seat.”