The 6 Types of Working Genius has been one of the most enlightening books I've read regarding how people work. In fact, our whole team read the book and took the assessment. It has given us a greater understanding of how we each work and has changed the way we approach projects. It has also relieved some guilt over areas that are not our "genius". 

The 6 types of working genius are as follows:

The Genius of Wonder: the natural gift of pondering the possibility of greater potential and opportunity in a given situation.

The Genius of Invention: the natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions.

The Genius of Discernment: the natural gift of intuitively and instinctively evaluating ideas and situations.

The Genius of Galvanizing: the natural gift of rallying, inspiring and organizing others to take action.

The Genius of Enablement: the natural gift of providing encouragement and assistance for an idea or project.

The Genius of...

If you thought the Great Resignation was a 2021 phenomenon, you’re wrong. Employee retention is still a problem for employers. In a recent article published by the Human Resources Professionals Association, they indicate that Canadian companies are collectively attempting to fill 915,000 job vacancies, 80% more than in 2019 according to Statistics Canada, and well above pre-pandemic levels. 

“What’s unfolding then is not just the Great Resignation (the symptom), but the Great Prioritization (the cause). Simply put, people are putting a greater focus on well-being, health (physical, social and mental), family (childcare and/or aging parents) and other hobbies and interests - and by extension, taking the time to consider who they work for, how they work, and why they work.” 

Recruiting employees in this environment is a challenge, but an equally important discussion is how to keep the great staff that you already have. It’s time to rethink how...

Our focus for the month of March is Human Resources. We thought we'd start off with the recent State of the Global Workplace report, an annual report representing the collective voice of the global employee. In this edition, the pandemic and its aftershock continued to disrupt the workplace.  

The pulse of the global workplace is low, but it's still beating, leaving much room for leaders to ask, "How am I creating a thriving workplace for my employees today?"

The report lists six findings, summarized below: 

1. Global engagement and wellbeing remain stable, but not great.
2. Stress among the world's workers reached an all-time high -- again.
3. Wellbeing in Europe and South Asia was hit hard in 2021 by COVID-19 waves.
4. The job market made a recovery in the U.S. and Canada region, but not elsewhere.
5. The best region in the world to be an employee.
6. Employee wellbeing is the new workplace imperative.

To read the full report, click here.

"The most productive business leaders I coach recognize productivity is not about getting more things done; it's about getting the right things done. It's about starting each day with clarity and ending with a sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and energy to spare. It's about achieving more by doing less, and this book shows you how." (Michael Hyatt, Free to Focus)

This book is a productivity game-changer. Michael Hyatt guides you through the process and provides tools to identify the work that is the most productive and most satisfying. The work that allows you to achieve more by doing less. He says that , "the important question is not, Can I do this job faster, easier, and cheaper? It's, Should I be doing this job at all?"

"If you want to master your schedule, increase your efficiency and output, and create more margin in your life for the things you care about, you've got to learn how to focus. I'm talking about the ability to zero in and do the deep work that creates a...

Want to start your season off right? Plan a spring kick-off meeting. A seasonal kick-off meeting is a way to get everyone on the same page, remind them of policies and procedures, review your company values and priorities, celebrate achievements and get excited for the year ahead. It's a great team-building opportunity that will bring everyone together and create a positive company culture. 

Below are some great ideas from an article for Lawn & Landscape by Steve Cesare (original article can be found here).

______________________________________

A business owner from Massachusetts called me the other day to talk about the annual transition from the snow season to the landscape season, and what he should do to get all the employees on the same page to ensure prompt, aligned and optimal field execution. With 85-90 employees to consider, it is important for the business owner to design a well-crafted, organized “Landscape Kickoff Day” that is informative,...

(Original article by John Janes can be found here.)

You can find the original article by Lauren Spiers HERE.  

Properly scheduling and routing crews can often be a complicated, mind-bending exercise.

Ensuring that every crewmember receives his or her required hours per week, creating efficient routes for crews to follow, contending with weather issues or crewmembers who need to take a sick day – it all spells R-O-L-A-I-D-S for operations managers and company presidents trying to make everything fit together.

Creating efficient and effective routes and schedules really is like putting a puzzle together, and finding those helpful edge and corner pieces first can make the process easier. Here are a few tips contractors offered to help ensure the rest of the pieces all fit nicely.

• Work one step at a time. “The more [crews] you have, the more difficult it is to route and schedule, but if you just break everything up into little pieces and try not to schedule everybody at once, it’s much easier,”...

“Crucial Conversations draws our attention to those defining moments that literally shape our lives, our relationships, and our world. . . . This book deserves to take its place as one of the key thought leadership contributions of our time.” (From the forward by Steven R. Covey)

Crucial conversations are those we have with important people in our lives, both personal and professional, where the outcome of the conversation will have a significant impact on our lives. This book teaches you how to manage and use these conversations to their full potential in order to build a better life.

No one likes difficult conversations. But they are necessary and they're important for the health of our business, our relationships and our mental wellbeing. Using the tools outlined in the book, you'll be equipped to handle these conversations with confidence, care, and clarity, making it safe to talk about almost anything and be persuasive, not abrasive.

Crucial conversations...

Source: Monster.ca. The original article can be found here. 

Getting organized comes as second nature to some of us, while others may choose to procrastinate on any “spring cleaning” or organizational tasks. For those people, just the mere thought of cleaning up and getting organized can be daunting.

Whether or not keeping organized is one of your strengths, it’s a habit everyone should get into. If you’ve ever kept your boss waiting because you couldn’t locate an important document, or if you’re guilty of arriving late to meetings frequently or missing an important deadline, getting organized should be at the top of your to-do list.

If you’re looking for some guidance, below you can find some benefits of keeping organized, as well as tips on how and what to organize to get the most out of your day–to-day work.

Benefits of keeping organized:

You can increase your productivity. By keeping organized, you will save time...

In our last blog, we talked about improving your snow business (or any contracting business, for that matter), and focused on 3 areas: leadership, customers and staff. Today, we'll cover the final three areas: finances, operations and safety. 

4. FINANCES

• Create and review your budget: Your budget keeps you on track and lets you know how you’re doing. Create a budget and then review it monthly against actuals to measure how well you’re doing and address any issues before they become problems.
• Check your margins: Is each job profitable? Are you charging enough to cover your costs and make a profit? Job costing will provide great insight into where you may need to make changes.
• Everyone gets a number: How do you measure a win? Give everyone a clear and measurable goal that helps you determine how well the business and the employee are doing.  

FINANCE KPI’s/REPORTS

• Profit - gross/net by division
• Cash flow
• Expenses (labour, materials,...