Growing Weeders Into Leaders: Leadership Lessons from the Ground Level

Jeff McManus

Mac 2017 · Morgan James Publishing

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One of America’s most accomplished landscaping professionals reveals his methods for cultivating greatness.
 
Nowadays, greatness tends to be measured by shortest or longest times, highest heights, medals won, honors given. But as Aristotle taught us, greatness is what we can do every day, without recognition or reward, for the satisfaction that comes from meeting the challenge, creating a team, and overcoming the odds.
 
Under Jeff McManus’s leadership as Director of Landscape Services, the Ole Miss campus has won professional awards—and been cited by Newsweek and Princeton Review as America’s “most beautiful campus.” In Growing Weeders into Leaders, he relates the principles behind his team’s success. It is an entertaining and thoughtful look into the hearts and the workday lives of ordinary people who tapped into their inner greatness in pursuit of a vision. Creating one of America’s most beautiful college campuses at the University of Mississippi did not happen overnight and, inside these pages, McManus describes the joys, the defeats, the brilliant problem-solving and the best laid plans that are proven worthless . . . until the bigger picture appears. This is the bigger picture as viewed from the ground level—taking you through the practical applications of empowering people to experience not only what it means to grow outstanding landscapes, but also to grow greatness in themselves and encourage it in others.
 
“A straightforward approach to problem-solving and methods to grow individuals into a team.” —Susanne Woodell, CGM Historic Gardens Manager, Biltmore

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Doing more with less is a 21st century mandate and no one knows this better than a Director of Landscape Services. Jeff McManus, CGM, has found unique ways of meeting that mandate by developing a dedicated, thoughtful and inspiring work force. Jeff’s GROW-Theory, which is based on the belief that all humans either strive for or have within them the elements of Greatness, Resiliency, Opportunity and Wisdom, has been fruitful on the Ole Miss campus. McManus developed Landscape UniversityTM to intrinsically motivate his employees personally, while training them professionally. Jeff has a bachelor's degree in Landscape and Ornamental Horticulture from Auburn University and is the recipient of the 2016 Horticulture Alumni of the year. He is also an International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist. Jeff has been with the University of Mississippi since 2000 as Director of Landscape Services. During those years Jeff and his team have gained national recognition for their attention to detail and eye for beauty. Under Jeff’s leadership the Ole Miss campus has won the National Professional Grounds Maintenance Society Best Maintained Campus twice, Newsweek’s most beautiful campus in 2011 and was named by the Princeton Review as the 2013 most beautiful campus. Jeff led his team in some creative waste management, which caught the attention of The New York Times, November 1, 2014. Jeff is a popular speaker and trainer for local, state and national organizations and industry. His first book Pruning Like A Pro has garnered attention for its fun and simple approach to the gardener’s dilemma...pruning!