A potted plant is very similar to an employee in an organisation, it requiresan environment where it can be nourished and looked after for it to grow.
When a seed is planted, we need to have patience and wait a while before we see a small shoot of green in the mud. Once we see this green, we need to water it regularly, place it in an area where there is enough sunlight and add manure to the soil for it to grow. Once the conditions are perfect the shoot will grow into a magnificent tree and bear fruits.
Similarly, when an employee joins an organisation we need to have patience so that an employee can settle down in his/her new work place, it may not be entirely right on part of the management to expect him to perform immediately. Once the employee settles down we need to ensure that he is provided the right environment wherein he/she can work towards achieving the organisational and personal goals. Environment in the case of an employee could be that of positivity, honesty and creativity.
Guidance, feedback and mentoring is just like the sunlight which an employee may need to make the best use of the resources at hand and perform, just like a plant produces oxygen through photosynthesis and employee can produce results with the right input from his/her leaders.
Manure is like the training can be given to an employee so that he can give a better output and improve on his skills.
Most of the organisation have a training and development departments wherein they focus on training an employee, the benchmarks are calculated in terms of hours trained and if a certain target is achieved they are satisfied that they have done their bit. However, the problem is that there is no focus on learning, achieving the target of training hours doesn’t mean that an employee has learned anything, also every employee is different and may not learn at a same pace, it is very similar to a plant where in every plant may need a different concoction of manure based on its requirement. Many a organisations now have a learning and development cells or Managers where they focus on learning and not on training.
It is upto the management to ensure that learning happens, focus on the strong and weak points of an employee and provide specific training to an individual which will develop his skills and capabilities. Training need analysis is one such tool which can help identify the specific training needs of an employee. Many organisations do this, however, very few do it in a structured manner.
We also know that cross pollination helps the plants to grow stronger and healthier, similarly an employee needs to be exposed to various conditions through external trainings, cross trainings, role swapping, etc. This will only make an employee better.
Botanists claim that plants grow better when there are other plants are around, some of similar kind and some of other. Teamwork, diversity and camaraderie goes a long way in creating an ideal work place.
We have also heard that scientists and gardeners claim that talking to a plant creates positive vibes and facilitates growth. It’s important that the leaders of the organisation do the same with their teams, individually from time to time to understand the aspirations, progress and growth of their employees.
A plant also needs to weeded from time to time, an employee needs to undergo an appraisal / evaluation where in his positives are discussed and encouraged and negatives are identified and abolished.
Providing the right atmosphere to an employee is essential for an organisation to get the best out of an employee, failing to do so is likely to produce an undesired result.
Every plant has a potential to become a tree, an organisation should grant an opportunity to this plant by placing it in a garden where it will have an opportunity to face new challenges and reach its full potential and become a tree.
What you sow, so shall you reap!
