The Leadership Connection
by Danny Summers
The spark of The Group's beginnings came from a small group of Garden Retailers talking through "what if" ideas. At its core, it centered on learning from each other.
In the early days, most of that sharing and learning happened at the owner level –– peer-to-peer, but the peers were owners.
Once an owner realizes the best opportunity for growth (of the business and bottom line) comes from a well-trained team, team development becomes a priority. That's when I've seen the traditional "gatekeeper" management style transform into a "coaching or mentoring" style. And that's when I've seen much happier, healthier owners.
For the owner who once said, "I just can't do any more or work any harder," shifting the focus to team development changed everything.
In recent years, The Group has seen tremendous change in how Centers are managed, and at the same time, we've seen both sales and profits improve.
We know having a well-trained team helps everyone: owners, staff, and of course, customers. The natural next question is: Which management or leadership style yields the best results? We don't know the answer yet, but we hope to find out through The Group's new Leadership Styles Benchmarking Project –– exploring the connection between leadership styles and best-performing Centers.
Tomorrow, we hope all Group Centers Owners and Managers can join us for an introduction to this new project during the September GROUPtalk LIVE session. More details are below, and the Zoom Invitation has been sent to the GroupEs eList.
See you soon... In Cleveland!
Sharing is at the heart of The Group and your ideas are very important. If you have any trouble logging into The Group WebSystem, please let me know. Are you and your staff all subscribed to our eLists such as GroupEs, Retail-Grower, Retail-Landscape, Owners-Only, and a number of others? Need help subscribing? Let me know so I can show you how you can sign up.
Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145
REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, John Kennedy, Seawright & Associates, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!
