A CEO recently asked me, “How are you navigating today’s market challenges in your business?”
My response, “We often do not know when our client companies need help recruiting a key leadership position. So, we focus on the activity we can control. We plant and water our relationships, and trust that God will cause the growth.”
While my response may seem simple, this was an important lesson of patience, process and prayer I learned years ago from a previous CEO when I stepped into my first leadership position.
At the time, I was more focused on short-term results than investing in the people and processes that ultimately drove our success.
My previous CEO encouraged me to slow down (patience), manage my team based on activity (process) and trust that God will cause the growth (prayer).
As a result, our team created our plant, water and grow strategy (1 Cor 3: 6-7) in how we approach relationship development and timing of results.
- Plant. Build authentic relationships with consistent and intentional activity. Be organized, track and follow up with people.
- Water. Cultivate and strengthen relationships with relevant and timely communication that adds value. Be thoughtful to the needs of your audience.
- Grow. With confidence and trust, surrender the results. If it is meant to be, God will cause the growth. This is most difficult for me (and likely many of us).
In our executive search work, the same plant, water and grow strategy applies to everything we do.
It applies to targeted business development with new and existing client companies, and the role our personal and professional relationships serve to help us identify new business opportunities.
It applies to our executive search process and the duration a search project can take from start to finish to help our client companies mitigate risk and make the right leadership hire.
And, perhaps most commonly, it applies to the encouragement we share with active and passive job seekers who are navigating their next career opportunity.
As much as I enjoy sharing our plant, water and grow strategy with others, it especially serves as a personal reminder to me and how we approach our work every day.
As each of us navigates today’s market challenges, may we focus on the work of planting and watering our relationships. And most importantly, trust that God will cause the growth!
