I grow tomatoes, a legacy of my Italian heritage. It doesn't get much better at this time of the year than to pluck a tomato, ripe from the vine and still warm from the sun, and savor its flavor as the juice runs down my hand.

Growing tomatoes also provides a useful metaphor for leadership. What are the similarities?

Prepare the soil. Before I plant, I have to make sure the ground is prepared. First, I've got to choose a location in the garden that has ample sun. Then, I'll add compost, manure, and lime (as needed) and till them into the soil to ensure the plants have the right environment in which to thrive.

Leaders need to prepare their work environments, too. This means several things, among them:

Does the workplace have the technology, resources, and support to ensure the staff is productive? Are the working conditions safe and healthy? Does the business provide an appropriate benefits and human resources support package so the staff feels it is being treated fairly and professionally? Is the culture of the business both professional and humane; that is, does it foster both effective communications and mature relationships?

Not all workplaces provide a productive, professional, and nurturing environment. Are there aspects of your workplace that can be improved upon to create the conditions that will enable your staff to flourish? What are they? What can you do to improve them?

Select the right tomatoes. I don't just choose any tomato from the nursery. I take a lot of time to decide which varieties I'll plant. I review which ones did well or badly last year, I plan for how many types I will buy, and I decide exactly what I want the tomatoes for. Some are for salads, some for slicing and serving with basil and extra virgin olive oil, and some are for cooking, especially with pasta.

Deciding which people to hire is critical to the success of the business. Making the right decision is fraught with challenges. How costly and time-consuming is it to find, evaluate, and select the people you need? Do the people have the right technical skills, experience, and knowledge needed for the business now and in the future? Will the people fit within your firm's culture and will they be accepted and embraced by the team?

The challenges of getting the right talent sometimes result in leaders who short-circuit the process. They take people merely for the sake of expediency instead of taking the time to get the right people for the job, or they promote people from within who aren't right or who aren't ready for the position.

In what ways might you have short-circuited the hiring process? What might you do differently to improve the quality and suitability of the people you hire?

Nurture the plants. My tomatoes do much better when I feed and water them regularly. It's not enough just to stick them in the ground and hope they do well.

Leaders must nurture their staff members as well. Merely giving the staff work to do and checking to be sure it's done is not enough. Leaders should ensure that their staff is learning new skills and taking on responsibilities that require them to stretch. They should also provide regular and clear feedback on their performance.

Pay attention, daily. I'd like to think I didn't have to check the garden every day but, nature being what it is, there is always something that requires my attention. The thunderstorm blew down branches; the hot weather dried out the ground; the neighborhood rabbits have eaten the seedlings; the growing tomato plants need to be staked and tied up. I'm never sure what I'll find, but there's something happening every day.

Things change at work, too. Client crises erupt unexpectedly; staff members leave, or join; budgets change; bosses intercede; corporate requirements pop up; and project issues arise. All of which require leaders' daily attention. Too many leaders fail to attend to the needs of the staff on a regular basis in order to ensure that changes and surprises don't derail the work or distract the staff.

Reap the harvest. Eventually, I get to enjoy the benefits of my labor - I get to harvest and eat the tomatoes I've grown. A great part of the satisfaction comes from enjoying the fruits of my labor, not just buying something from the store.

It's the same at work. There is great satisfaction for leaders who know that their effort and attention has paid off. They've exceeded their sales targets; they've expanded market share; they've resolved their clients' problems; they've grown talent; they've overcome and resolved a long-standing bottleneck in a firm-wide process.

Success at work doesn't come overnight. It comes from the same kind of attention and care that is used to grow and harvest tomatoes.

What can you do now to improve the harvest you reap at work?

Mark Twain wrote, "There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group in less crowded."

Which are you?

Leaders distinguish themselves when they get things done and make a difference, and when they help others to do so, too.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, "If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

How true! The older I get, the more I realize that many of the difficulties we face are self-inflicted.

What about you? In what ways are you your own worst enemy? How do your preferences, blind spots, and biases create your troubles? What can you do to get out of your own way?

email: archie@archietinelli.com archie@archietinelli.com