DON'T JUST MOW THE LAWN

By George Denise

A fairly well known psychologist, management counselor and author, Steven Covey, told a story about hiring his son to maintain their landscape. He noted that he wasn't hiring him to mow the lawn, or to edge the lawn, or trim the bushes, or to water or to fertilize. He was hiring him to maintain a nice yard. All those other things are some of the tasks that go into maintaining the landscape, but simply doing those tasks does not necessarily result in a nice yard. To insure a nice yard, it's necessary to stand back and look at the yard, compare it with the other nice yards in the neighborhood, note what areas need to be improved, and then correct them. Mowing, and edging, and trimming, and all the rest are tasks that go into making a yard nice. But by themselves, they will not necessarily get the job done. The process of standing back, assessing the yard, determining what needs to be done, and then doing it is the job.

In everything, throughout life, there are those who just do their assigned tasks, and there are those take responsibility for the complete job. We need members of both groups. We need labor to do the work, and we need those who are capable of standing back and determining what needs to be done to determine what work needs to be done and then either do it or see that it gets done. Usually, members of the first group work for members of the second group. Those who can stand back and look at the whole job, and determine what needs to be done and then take care of it usually end up in charge of the others. And typically get paid more for doing it.

What kind of worker are you going to be in life? The guy that takes on responsibility for the whole yard? Or the guy that just mows the lawn?

Thank you for listening, and God be with you.