Planting Gardens in Your Business
Gardens can be beautiful additions to a house, bringing additional growth, color and oxygen to its owner. The same is true for your admin’s in their Adminnovate Model House. While the house holds the primary duties and responsibilities of the admin, there is an opportunity to nurture growth outside the house, in the form of a garden.
In short, a garden is a passion project.
Gardens can come in the form of charities, social gatherings, involvement in associations, podcasting, writing, music, art, recycling, and so on. It’s a passion that creeps into the company without an expressed need, but enhances it nonetheless. It’s something that gives the admin’s house a personal touch and grows unique talents. It isn’t a required talent or skill or responsibility. It is purely chosen and nurtured by the admin. It is sometimes abandoned by the admin, without recourse.
Here are a few examples
Throughout my book launch journey, I’ve met several exceptional admins who have thriving gardens.
- Executive Assistants who host their own podcasts, growing their communication skills.
- Admins who coach other admins as a side hustle, improving their leadership abilities.
- Admin Assistants who organize charity events, gaining marketing and event planning experience
- Admins who write blogs, speak at summits, and build their own businesses
These gardens are important to the admins’ growth and development while nurturing something they personally choose and enjoy. The ability to participate in these activities outside their primary responsibilities brings them joy and satisfaction beyond their personal career goals.
This is where you come in
Your job in the garden is to encourage and admire the garden, but not require the plants to grow. Remember that the garden is a bonus. In the examples I’ve mentioned, each admin could decide not to participate in the passion project. While this might be disappointing to others outside the company, the admins should not face any recourse in their primary positions in their companies.
If you’re tempted to punish or fire an admin for abandoning a garden, either the AM House isn’t well defined or your priorities are misplaced. Any position requirement belongs inside the AM House.
Conversely, the admin should have your approval to dedicate some time to the garden, and the admin must keep a pulse on whether it is detracting from their primary responsibilities. The admin’s job is to keep the house standing strong before planting anything in the garden because a beautiful garden can be easily crushed by a collapsing house.
What gardens have been planted in your organization?
