Four Topics Grunder Landscaping is Training On this Spring

The 100 Days of Victory are in full swing, and while we're all busy executing right now, at Grunder Landscaping we are also always focused on training our teams. 

Often when we get so busy executing, we overlook that there are other, easier solutions to our problems. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking "It'll be faster for me to do it than to teach someone else how to."

But I challenge you this week to flip that mentality: if you take an extra 5 or 10 minutes this week to teach someone how to do a task the right way, how much time can that save you over the next month?

I always say that training is an investment, not an expense, and I mean this both in terms of time and in terms of the dollar-value cost. By dedicating time to teaching and educating ourselves and our team, we save time and money in the long run.

This month, we're teaching our GLC teams on four topics that I thought might help as you set your own training agendas:

• GLC and You, The Team Member: a reminder of our vision, core values, expectations, and commitments to our team. We want our team to remember that while we have high expectations of them, we also have made big promises to them that we intend to keep. Bonuses, advancement opportunities, and more are waiting as we grow.
• Safe Driving: driving is the most dangerous thing our teams do every day, and we're reminding our teams to be careful, go slow, and always be aware of other drivers on the road. Keep under the speed limit and stay in the right lane. If we are under the speed limit and in the right lane, we have a better chance of avoiding an accident and getting out of harm's way. 
• Shop Organization: We live by the mantra "A place for everything, and everything in its place." Like many of you, our team is growing this year and we have a lot of new faces. We are taking the time to show them where to find things. Putting tools and equipment back in the right place keeps our workplace safe and helps us be more efficient.

• Leadership: we're always investing in our team so that they learn new ways to connect and lead others. We learned we do not do enough "soft-skills" training with our team. A basic leadership element we teach is trust. Trust that your team member wants do the right thing and help them trust that you're doing the same. Give the benefit of the doubt. Another way we teach leadership is by looking at industry events, like the NALP Field Trip on June 23-24, that they can attend to get an outside perspective and learn new ways to help our team as a whole.

While training takes time, which I know is our most valuable resource this time of year, we also know that it pays in multiples down the road. As you go about your week, ask: Are you making time for training your team? What skills does your team need to know right now? What options exist for teaching them these skills?

I hope to see you in Boston this summer when we tour R.P. Marzilli as part of the NALP Field Trip. It'll be a fantastic event and a chance to learn from a company that is known for perfectionism when it comes to quality, and to see up close how they manage the details of complex construction jobs. I know I'll have a lot to learn from them! 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this. I'll talk to you next week!

Marty Grunder
President & CEO
Grunder Landscaping & The Grow Group