*Originally published on the blog for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (GTAC-ATD) in 2016.
I start with the disclaimer that I am not a botanist. I
never had pets growing up, so my mom’s house plants were like my pets. I helped
water them when I was younger until I was promoted to helping my dad with
mowing the lawn. I eventually learned more about flowers and landscaping when
working in city maintenance for a couple of summers.
With that said, how are employees like plants? What can we
learn from plant growth and apply to employee talent development?
Simply put: like
plants, employees need proper resources and a good environment in order to survive
and grow.
Most house plants need water, sunlight, and heat to grow.
With proper amounts of these resources, these plants can grow from small seeds
into big, tall plants. In many cases, house plants need to be moved to bigger
pots in order to continue living. That is, their roots continue to grow and
need more space in order to continue establishing a strong foundation.
When plants lack proper resources, they cannot survive.
Flowers and leaves lose their color and fall down. Without a replenishment of
these resources, plants cannot grow back. They are lost. They are gone.
On the flip side, too much of a resource can also be
detrimental. For plants, too much water can lead to the rotting of roots and
the ruining of soil. Despite trying to help the plants grow, a gardener
supplying too much water can actually cause a plant’s death.
Employees are not too much different. Employees are certainly
capable of surviving, thriving, and growing. In order to do so, they need the
proper tools and resources in order to perform their jobs. They need training,
feedback, and support in order to gain understanding of expectations and establish
productive actions and proper behaviors. Each employee needs to establish a
strong foundation as a member of the organization in order to become fully
engaged, effective, and efficient.
When lacking proper resources, employees are not able to
carry out their jobs. Instead of getting work done, they become frustrated. If workplace
safety is compromised, employees can get injured. Without feedback, employees develop
bad habits, including focusing on non-productive actions and improper
behaviors. In some cases, employees may advance to a certain level and then get
stuck; without enough space to continue growing, their morale erodes and they
need a change of scenery.
On the flip side, too much training time can take away from the
time needed to perform live, real-time work. Too much supervision and not
enough independence can make employees completely dependent on their
supervisors. As they stop using their own critical thinking abilities and wait
for manager approvals, less work gets done. For those who are already doing the
job well and feel suffocated by excess supervision, they get frustrated.
Feeling a lack of trust is present, some may even resort to insubordination in
order to make a point that too much supervision is ruining the environment.
Other environmental and cultural factors such as thermostat
settings, availability of parking, functionality of restroom facilities, open
door policies, suggestion boxes, and acknowledgement of paid time off can make
or break a work environment for the employees. Employees should have some level
of comfort at the workplace. They should be able to provide feedback and speak
up when something can be improved or is simply broken. They need breaks and
they need time off. They need to be able to attend to their lives outside of
work; their work is a part of their lives—not the other way around.
No matter how
talented or how resilient they are, employees without the right resources or
environment will either fail or leave the organization.
As such, talent development and organizational development
remain key components to employee success—and, in turn, organizational success.
Like plants, employees need to be given the right resources and environment in
order to succeed. It is only in giving employees what they need that an
organization can truly flourish.