People over plants: Leaders with empathy

Do you remember getting a training course in how to model and employ empathy as a leader in your business and management training classes you took as a part of your horticulture degree? Neither do I … because there weren't any. People management training classes, that is. This is a common reality for most of us who worked our way up into management or ownership roles across sectors of the green industry.

While we may be formally trained to care for plants, most of us weren't trained to manage human employees. Much less prioritize empathy.

On the job

I was 26 years old when I first started to have to formally take responsibility for employees. I had, to a lesser degree, done so informally at previous jobs and in graduate school, but without any real gravitas. I was driven, capable and smart at my plant-focused profession … but looking back, I was ill-equipped to take on managing other people's day to day performance and long-term success. I was still trying to figure out how I should try and manage my own. But as is often the case, competency can be both a blessing and a curse. If I'd known I would end up being responsible for more people and P&Ls than plants … I might have gotten another degree!

How old were you when you had the manager cap slapped on your head? Was it because you signed up for it? Or perhaps you were just good at the actual job you were hired to do, so you eventually got shuffled into a "management" role — or had those duties added on to your existing job — because that was most convenient for your employer. If you did, or do, want the responsibility of managing people, did you get the sort of training you'd need to be a good and empathetic leader?

Model manager

It's a given that we want to earn more and progress in our careers. That usually means taking on the duties of managing staff, even if we were only trained to manage plants. It's easy to think that because we're good at our jobs that we'll also be good at managing people; but it's never as easy as we think it's going to be. And most of us make a lot of mistakes along the way. I often felt compelled to manage in ways that felt toxic to me, simply due to the pressures of my role or priorities of those employing me. None of us want to make such mistakes, but we often simply don't have the tools in our toolbox needed to fine tune our people skills, the way we do with our plant skills.

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Source: Greenhouse Management