The Performance Enhancing Lettuces

By Greg Nathan posted April 7, 2015

A large white pot sits in a courtyard outside my office. A few months ago my wife planted some Impatiens seedlings. The seeedlings soon blosomed into groups of beautiful flowers basking happily in the sun. She then decided to plant some lettuce seedlings in the spaces between the flowers. Conditions must have been perfect because the lettuces grew like mad. You could actually see them stretching up a little more each day. Then something remarkable happened.

As the lettuces started to overtake the Impatiens flowers, the flowers stopped basking and started growing again. It was as if they realised they now had some friendly competition and, if they wanted to continue to enjoy the sun, they needed to stretch themselves some more. Take a look at the picture below and you’ll see what I mean.

The impact of the lettuces on the flowers reminded me of how we are affected by the people we surround ourselves with. It’s inspiring how positive people with a “green and growing” mindset can infuse others with their love of learning. It’s also interesting to watch how proactive people with a strong sense of purpose tend to get the juices going of those they work with.

Three types of people

I sometimes say to my team there are three types of people — those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. I don’t know about you, but I prefer to hang out with people who are like my wife’s lettuces, continually striving to reach their potential.

While it’s fun to take it easy and bask in the sun, complacency can also stunt our growth. What a blessing it is to have motivated colleagues around to nudge us and remind us there’s still lots more to learn and achieve.

Speaking of staying green and growing, if you enjoy these tips, we have an attractively bound compilation called “The Franchise Relationships Book of Tips”. It’s a great gift and many franchisors use the tips as thought starters for their management meetings. You can order copies here.

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