what is a weed Ralph Waldo Emerson says
a weed is a plant whose virtues have not
I’m Jeff McManus and I work with plants
every day and I lead teams who work with
plants and today I want to share with
you our story in the plants on ground
level in the weeds every day what can
plants teach us about leadership in
teamwork that can take a last-place
campus team to the first international
ranked in beautification today I want to
share the story of us at the University
of Mississippi as we changed our staffs
mindset from readers into leaders we
have a beautiful thousand acre campus
there and the first week I was there I
was awed by the plants and the things
that were there but it needed a little
love it needed a little care and I’m I
began to walk and spend time with my
boss who I called the master gardener of
people he had the touch of people of
empowering and he taught me which some
things I want to share with you but I
want to share with you the grow
principles that we learned our greatness
our resiliency our opportunity and our
wisdom that we learn from plants when
you walk into the Grove into the campus
it’s a beautiful ten acre park in the
center of a congested campus and one of
the first things that I noticed with a
beautiful majestic trees anybody here
been to Ole Miss before all right a few
when you walk on the campus and you just
stop this is one of those moments of
what Frederick Law Olmsted and his
family designed for meditation to
reflect and to know what is going on in
the garden so we looked here and one of
the things that I observed was that all
the trees were reaching to the heavens
they were growing to their full
potential they’re going out the root
systems are going strong there were no
barriers in their way there was nothing
impending them and they were strong as I
was walking that first week with a
Master Gardener of people dr. Robert
Khayat he did something very strange
that very first walk on campus he bent
over and does anybody know what he did
while we were walking campus he picked
up some trash now this was the guy who
was over the entire campus this is the
Chancellor and that’s awesome so you
know what I did right I started picking
up trash and what it showed me and our
team is that we lead by example we set
the culture just like in the Grove this
great environment this culture the
environment were trees to raise in the
leader sets the tone of the culture of
the environment in which the staff grows
Jeff don’t ever forget to always lead by
example one day he was pulling up some
weeds in the in the garden and I said
dr. Khayat what are you doing he goes
I’m weeding by example well as time as
time moved on he he would tell me goes
Jeff you’re not just pulling weeds and
cutting grass here at this campus
because you’re helping attract students
who go on and become doctors who go on
and create cures you’re helping our
football coach win national
championships you’re helping our deans
recruit top students who may go on and
write great nah
fools like John Grisham and we started
telling that story to our staff and we
said being like the oaktree to reach for
that greatness did you know that 62% of
prospective college students will make a
decision in the first few minutes of a
college visit if they’re going to that
College based on the appearance oh the
academics don’t like that but it’s true
we’re emotional people we feel connected
well the first football season came
along in our font fans and our alumni we
love to be in the Grove and we tailgate
and we have great memories and there’s a
lot of great times in the grove whether
we win or lose we have great memories in
the grove but when it’s all over there
comes a time that they leave us a little
something in the grove a little happy
all the garbage and this was this was
almost like it felt like it was being
thrown on us because as much personal
pride as we were taking and our staff
just kind of went out and in mosey
through and and tour pitiful us but we
took a lesson from the oak trees in the
grove their roots reach out beyond their
drip lines and they actually interact
and they they hold each other together
and they’re structured together and they
support one another so we brought our
team in together and we said how can we
change this how can we make this a win
and make this better for us with our
network with our small network of people
and one person raised their hand they go
I know we can close the Grove on game
day and everybody laughs because we’re
not gonna close the Grove on game day
and so we looked at other options what
about if we contracted it out we said
okay so we we put it out for bid like
any good government agency does when
they don’t want to do something right
the only problem is when I went to
procurement to look at the bids I was so
excited she looked at me I looked at her
she goes what I went why
nobody bid on it nobody wants to pick up
your trash Jeff so we went back to our
network our structure and we said what
else can we do and somebody came up with
an idea what if we ask a bigger network
of people what if we asked some
nonprofit groups to come and join us and
people laughed and said there’s nobody’s
gonna help us clean this up and somebody
said well what about some of these
college students and everybody laughs
college students are going to help us do
this but we tried it in the next week we
had a home game we had eighty college
students show up and we what took us
normally twelve two hours to clean the
grove took us about an hour and this we
changed it so we cleaned it at midnight
and this became a huge win for us so
much so that even the New York Times
wrote about our trash cleanup in the
grove and then as we looked I don’t know
how many of you’ve ever had this happen
to you that little plant grow up in your
driveway in the middle that little just
tough little guy or maybe you’re like
you hate to admit it like me I’ve got a
tree growing in my gutter right now you
know it’s opportunity did you know if an
acorn on a tree falls on the ground it
has one in 10,000 chance I’ve actually
become in a tree one in 10,000 the
campus was getting prettier we were
having more challenges we needed to be
more productive it was taking us 10 days
to mow the campus which was way too long
and so we went back to our network where
where our roots were we asked our staff
what can we do and people started coming
up with great ideas what if we could do
what if we can move some objects out of
the lawn area so our lawn mowers didn’t
have to back up and what if we didn’t
have to we’d eat around the trash cans
and what if we made our bed lines on our
turf sweep so our mowers never backed up
I said that’s a great idea and I had one
girl Danae who became really good at
this as she began to really empower and
she took ownership of it and she was
creating this bed lines and things that
her mowing dropped from ten days to five
days we said tonight you’re doing pretty
good at this we’d like to make you a
leader and step up and to do some other
things and then they immediately dropped
a barrier a mental barrier and said I
can’t do that she goes I’m fine with
doing these and frontline things but I
can’t lead other people you know the
mental barriers are what keeps keeps us
from taking that next job and in our
networks sometimes we have to let people
borrow our confidence in them when you
put a tree a beautiful majestic tree and
a little bitty parking lot cut out that
tree never becomes a big tree because it
has barriers we had to find out how to
get those mental barriers I don’t often
a and when we did and and she did she
became a great leader so much so that a
few years later she led the entire
department in our day-to-day operations
she took advantage she was that one in
10,000 she was that acorn but then she
didn’t stop there she said we need to
keep developing our team we need to have
that passion I don’t know if you’ve ever
worked with anybody like this but we
used to have people to go WOW I’ve only
got 30 more years and I can retire and
we needed people who were excited and
wanted to come on board and loved what
they did and so she developed and with
the rest of us a certification program
at our school that our staff could be
inspired and worked through she called
it landscape university and she took
that and ran with that opportunity and
then as time progressed
we took our fourth and really this is
where it all started now it started in
the most Awkward way wisdom Solomon says
he who walks with the wise is wise think
about who do you want your children to
hang out your grandchildren to hang out
with do you want them to hang out with
the bad kids or the good kids what about
our staff who are they hanging around
with when they get in their car in their
truck who are they listening to who’s
going who’s talking to them in their
mind and what we discovered it came in a
way of drama that we were having a
little bit of drama and then a whole lot
of drama I call these guys the drama
Nader’s I always said we gotta do
something and so we started walking our
people in wisdom and it was crazy
we bought books for our staff to read
and we had small little breakout book
clubs because what we wanted to do is to
change the thinking we wanted to get
their minds but mostly we wanted to get
their heart we wanted to get their
experiences and what happened was as
they began to talk about the books and
we would watch TEDx talks on videos they
would talk about the TEDx talk it lifted
them they began to walk with the Y’s and
those that didn’t they left on their own
it was a win-win for us all but there
was a plant in the grove and that
beautiful grove and we used to think it
was a weed and for years we tried to
eradicate it it was called the plantain
plant it’s an herb it’s not like the one
you get in the store is just a small
little herb and we thought that was a
weed but then we realized when we got
rid of it we didn’t have much growing
in the grove in the summertime we needed
something for ocean control nice green
area but also it was good for ant bites
and bee stings and it was actually
edible what we thought was bad ended up
being really good the same with some of
our employees some of the employees that
I fought were some of our most
challenging employees when we started
walking in wisdom we carried them to
other college campuses we brought in
speakers from our own campus Dean’s
presidents Chancellor’s head football
coaches and talked to them we had them
walking with the wise so their
understanding became greater now let me
ask you this in your life are you
putting barriers in your own greatness
are you mentally stopping yourself from
doing the thing which you could do right
now just as simple as a tree and grow to
that greatness it takes that resiliency
of a network of people those around you
who love you and care for you and always
seeking out that opportunity I call it
bloom where you’re planted no matter
where you are just bloom and get there
with walking with the wise thank you [Applause]
a weed is a plant whose virtues have not
I’m Jeff McManus and I work with plants
every day and I lead teams who work with
plants and today I want to share with
you our story in the plants on ground
level in the weeds every day what can
plants teach us about leadership in
teamwork that can take a last-place
campus team to the first international
ranked in beautification today I want to
share the story of us at the University
of Mississippi as we changed our staffs
mindset from readers into leaders we
have a beautiful thousand acre campus
there and the first week I was there I
was awed by the plants and the things
that were there but it needed a little
love it needed a little care and I’m I
began to walk and spend time with my
boss who I called the master gardener of
people he had the touch of people of
empowering and he taught me which some
things I want to share with you but I
want to share with you the grow
principles that we learned our greatness
our resiliency our opportunity and our
wisdom that we learn from plants when
you walk into the Grove into the campus
it’s a beautiful ten acre park in the
center of a congested campus and one of
the first things that I noticed with a
beautiful majestic trees anybody here
been to Ole Miss before all right a few
when you walk on the campus and you just
stop this is one of those moments of
what Frederick Law Olmsted and his
family designed for meditation to
reflect and to know what is going on in
the garden so we looked here and one of
the things that I observed was that all
the trees were reaching to the heavens
they were growing to their full
potential they’re going out the root
systems are going strong there were no
barriers in their way there was nothing
impending them and they were strong as I
was walking that first week with a
Master Gardener of people dr. Robert
Khayat he did something very strange
that very first walk on campus he bent
over and does anybody know what he did
while we were walking campus he picked
up some trash now this was the guy who
was over the entire campus this is the
Chancellor and that’s awesome so you
know what I did right I started picking
up trash and what it showed me and our
team is that we lead by example we set
the culture just like in the Grove this
great environment this culture the
environment were trees to raise in the
leader sets the tone of the culture of
the environment in which the staff grows
Jeff don’t ever forget to always lead by
example one day he was pulling up some
weeds in the in the garden and I said
dr. Khayat what are you doing he goes
I’m weeding by example well as time as
time moved on he he would tell me goes
Jeff you’re not just pulling weeds and
cutting grass here at this campus
because you’re helping attract students
who go on and become doctors who go on
and create cures you’re helping our
football coach win national
championships you’re helping our deans
recruit top students who may go on and
write great nah
fools like John Grisham and we started
telling that story to our staff and we
said being like the oaktree to reach for
that greatness did you know that 62% of
prospective college students will make a
decision in the first few minutes of a
college visit if they’re going to that
College based on the appearance oh the
academics don’t like that but it’s true
we’re emotional people we feel connected
well the first football season came
along in our font fans and our alumni we
love to be in the Grove and we tailgate
and we have great memories and there’s a
lot of great times in the grove whether
we win or lose we have great memories in
the grove but when it’s all over there
comes a time that they leave us a little
something in the grove a little happy
all the garbage and this was this was
almost like it felt like it was being
thrown on us because as much personal
pride as we were taking and our staff
just kind of went out and in mosey
through and and tour pitiful us but we
took a lesson from the oak trees in the
grove their roots reach out beyond their
drip lines and they actually interact
and they they hold each other together
and they’re structured together and they
support one another so we brought our
team in together and we said how can we
change this how can we make this a win
and make this better for us with our
network with our small network of people
and one person raised their hand they go
I know we can close the Grove on game
day and everybody laughs because we’re
not gonna close the Grove on game day
and so we looked at other options what
about if we contracted it out we said
okay so we we put it out for bid like
any good government agency does when
they don’t want to do something right
the only problem is when I went to
procurement to look at the bids I was so
excited she looked at me I looked at her
she goes what I went why
nobody bid on it nobody wants to pick up
your trash Jeff so we went back to our
network our structure and we said what
else can we do and somebody came up with
an idea what if we ask a bigger network
of people what if we asked some
nonprofit groups to come and join us and
people laughed and said there’s nobody’s
gonna help us clean this up and somebody
said well what about some of these
college students and everybody laughs
college students are going to help us do
this but we tried it in the next week we
had a home game we had eighty college
students show up and we what took us
normally twelve two hours to clean the
grove took us about an hour and this we
changed it so we cleaned it at midnight
and this became a huge win for us so
much so that even the New York Times
wrote about our trash cleanup in the
grove and then as we looked I don’t know
how many of you’ve ever had this happen
to you that little plant grow up in your
driveway in the middle that little just
tough little guy or maybe you’re like
you hate to admit it like me I’ve got a
tree growing in my gutter right now you
know it’s opportunity did you know if an
acorn on a tree falls on the ground it
has one in 10,000 chance I’ve actually
become in a tree one in 10,000 the
campus was getting prettier we were
having more challenges we needed to be
more productive it was taking us 10 days
to mow the campus which was way too long
and so we went back to our network where
where our roots were we asked our staff
what can we do and people started coming
up with great ideas what if we could do
what if we can move some objects out of
the lawn area so our lawn mowers didn’t
have to back up and what if we didn’t
have to we’d eat around the trash cans
and what if we made our bed lines on our
turf sweep so our mowers never backed up
I said that’s a great idea and I had one
girl Danae who became really good at
this as she began to really empower and
she took ownership of it and she was
creating this bed lines and things that
her mowing dropped from ten days to five
days we said tonight you’re doing pretty
good at this we’d like to make you a
leader and step up and to do some other
things and then they immediately dropped
a barrier a mental barrier and said I
can’t do that she goes I’m fine with
doing these and frontline things but I
can’t lead other people you know the
mental barriers are what keeps keeps us
from taking that next job and in our
networks sometimes we have to let people
borrow our confidence in them when you
put a tree a beautiful majestic tree and
a little bitty parking lot cut out that
tree never becomes a big tree because it
has barriers we had to find out how to
get those mental barriers I don’t often
a and when we did and and she did she
became a great leader so much so that a
few years later she led the entire
department in our day-to-day operations
she took advantage she was that one in
10,000 she was that acorn but then she
didn’t stop there she said we need to
keep developing our team we need to have
that passion I don’t know if you’ve ever
worked with anybody like this but we
used to have people to go WOW I’ve only
got 30 more years and I can retire and
we needed people who were excited and
wanted to come on board and loved what
they did and so she developed and with
the rest of us a certification program
at our school that our staff could be
inspired and worked through she called
it landscape university and she took
that and ran with that opportunity and
then as time progressed
we took our fourth and really this is
where it all started now it started in
the most Awkward way wisdom Solomon says
he who walks with the wise is wise think
about who do you want your children to
hang out your grandchildren to hang out
with do you want them to hang out with
the bad kids or the good kids what about
our staff who are they hanging around
with when they get in their car in their
truck who are they listening to who’s
going who’s talking to them in their
mind and what we discovered it came in a
way of drama that we were having a
little bit of drama and then a whole lot
of drama I call these guys the drama
Nader’s I always said we gotta do
something and so we started walking our
people in wisdom and it was crazy
we bought books for our staff to read
and we had small little breakout book
clubs because what we wanted to do is to
change the thinking we wanted to get
their minds but mostly we wanted to get
their heart we wanted to get their
experiences and what happened was as
they began to talk about the books and
we would watch TEDx talks on videos they
would talk about the TEDx talk it lifted
them they began to walk with the Y’s and
those that didn’t they left on their own
it was a win-win for us all but there
was a plant in the grove and that
beautiful grove and we used to think it
was a weed and for years we tried to
eradicate it it was called the plantain
plant it’s an herb it’s not like the one
you get in the store is just a small
little herb and we thought that was a
weed but then we realized when we got
rid of it we didn’t have much growing
in the grove in the summertime we needed
something for ocean control nice green
area but also it was good for ant bites
and bee stings and it was actually
edible what we thought was bad ended up
being really good the same with some of
our employees some of the employees that
I fought were some of our most
challenging employees when we started
walking in wisdom we carried them to
other college campuses we brought in
speakers from our own campus Dean’s
presidents Chancellor’s head football
coaches and talked to them we had them
walking with the wise so their
understanding became greater now let me
ask you this in your life are you
putting barriers in your own greatness
are you mentally stopping yourself from
doing the thing which you could do right
now just as simple as a tree and grow to
that greatness it takes that resiliency
of a network of people those around you
who love you and care for you and always
seeking out that opportunity I call it
bloom where you’re planted no matter
where you are just bloom and get there
with walking with the wise thank you [Applause]
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