Illustration © Visual Generation | Adobe Stock

Do you know someone very talented at their work and promoted to management without receiving any guidance or training? Maybe you’ve promoted a worker who really shined above the rest yet seemed to struggle with the transition. It’s not so different from playing baseball and coaching baseball. The best player on the team doesn’t always make the best coach. However, with some really simple tools, you can help your workers transition to manager in a much less stressful and more rewarding manner for everyone.

Oftentimes, in predominantly labor-based industries, people get promoted to manager because of their efforts, work ethic or because they’re the best at what they do. While these promotions generally come with a boost in pay and other perks, many new managers find the transition challenging and downright overwhelming. The stress of managing people, customers and inventory doesn’t end at the end of the shift — it often causes sleep and anxiety issues through the night.

Brandon Varney, owner of Pristine Green, located in Phoenix, says, “I could have never imagined how much stress it would be to transition from doing the majority of the work to managing a ... team. Once after returning from a weekend vacation, I was bombarded with messages from customers saying their yards were not serviced. Apparently, our team lead was out sick and didn’t let clients know he wouldn’t be able to get the team out. No weekend away was worth the stress of having to recover accounts and get caught up.”

Why is this? At the most fundamental level, the skills someone has leading to a promotion are not the same skills that will serve them as manager. Think back to before you became a manager. As a laborer, work was very process-oriented. You followed the process, and the work got done. As a manager, it’s not as clear cut. At any given time, you’re dealing with people not showing up, poor workmanship or turnover. If your team is ship shape, a good chunk of your time may be spent managing customer complaints or resolving scheduling or inventory issues.  

What’s generally missing is a process to manage people. Without one, many default to how they were parented. If your parent was a yeller, under pressure you’re going to yell at your employees. If your parent was a pushover, under pressure you’ll give in to your employees. Neither is effective because parenting is not managing.

Illustration © Visual Generation | Adobe Stock

So what does work?

Effective management is the practice of regular observation and providing clear, specific feedback in real time. When you see or hear your employee do something right (even if it is part of what is expected of him or her), let them know. Behavioral science says people receive critical feedback from their manager much better when balanced with specific, positive feedback. Rather than saying, “Nice job,” let your worker know exactly what they did that you want to see more of.  What about undesired or ineffective behavior? Nothing shuts an employee down faster than being yelled at or demeaned in front of their peers. Rather than parent them, you need to first make sure the employee is very clear on what the expected behavior is.

Next, state the specific, observed behavior needing adjustment followed by letting the employee know the ripple effect of the behavior. Finish the conversation by making the behavioral expectation very clear. It’s much less costly to give a worker the opportunity to get it right before cutting them loose and starting over again.

At the most fundamental level, the skills someone has leading to a promotion are not the same skills that will serve them as manager.

Another best practice is to conduct a daily huddle. This is a great way to get your crew on the same page by sharing the plan for the day and eliciting feedback on resources they need or any other obstacle that could prevent accomplishing the day’s goal. As manager, this becomes your to-do list to ensure your crew has every possibility of staying on track and meeting goals or deadlines. Pristine Green uses a daily group message because they are not all in the same location. Varney says, “It’s really benefitted our landscape team by alerting them of items needing care due to change in seasons or a new strategy we’re incorporating. The team has a better understanding of what is expected, and our customers benefit from better looking yards.”

Your job as manager is to remove obstacles and provide tools and resources so your crew can effectively do their job. In essence, you must be committed to their success. This is especially true in industries where the labor shortage is a huge concern. We all know turnover is expected, but when good employees are walking out the door, so do your profits. Combine this with the statistic that nearly two-thirds of all workers leave their job due to quality of the day-to-day relationship with their direct supervisor. This means it’s up to you to create an environment where they want to stay.

The author is founder of Guide to Greatness, a consulting company based in Arizona.  

Tomatoes are the most widely grown fruiting greenhouse crop. The types of tomatoes produced vary from the beefsteak or slicer types to the smaller-fruited grape and cherry types. Regardless of which kind you are growing, they can all suffer from cluster kinking (Fig. 1), snapping, or in extreme circumstances, ripping (Fig. 2). When mild kinking occurs, fruits and clusters may develop into marketable products. However, when kinking is severe, or when the tissue snaps or rips and severs the vascular tissue that conducts water, nutrients and carbohydrates, fruits may not develop into the high quality that’s expected from greenhouse-grown tomatoes.

There are different factors that can cause this. First, some varieties have a weaker pedicle (flower and fruit stem) than other varieties. It can also be influenced by the greenhouse environment. When a crop is grown in a warm environment, it steers the plant toward a more vegetative state. This doesn’t mean the plant will stop flowering, but the vegetative and generative (reproductive) stages of fruiting vine crops elicit different growth habits. When a tomato is in a more vegetative state, the pedicle of the flower cluster is more upright. As a result, that vertical habit of the pedicle carries out through fruiting. Low light intensity can also result in more kinking or snapping as well. Tissue grown under low light is softer and weaker than under higher light and, under the weight of fruit, can bend or snap more easily.

There are a few ways to try and avoid this problem. First, if the disorder was the result of an environment that is favorable to causing it, try to change the growing environment. For instance, if you have supra-optimal air temperatures or low light, try to cool your greenhouse or increase lighting.

However, some factors can’t be controlled. If you are already using all cooling stages in the summer, it is going to be a challenge to drop temperatures. Similarly, if you are suffering from low light in the winter, but do not have supplemental lights you can use to provide more light to your crop, there is nothing you can do to prevent weak stems.

If you have modified the greenhouse environment and culture, but still find this disorder occurring, using a support for your fruiting clusters is the best way to minimize losses from cluster kinking or ripping. While this will require additional labor inputs, in addition to the costs of the clips and supports themselves, it is the last option you have. There are a few different styles you can use. One type of clip, the arch support, is placed on the pedicle when the flower cluster is blooming and, as the fruits form and the cluster bears more weight on the stem, an arch is formed and supported by the clip, supporting the fruits. Another type of support, the “J hook,” attaches directly to the vine twine or trellis and then the pedicle is placed in a hook. For both supports, as the cluster gets heavier, they will stop kinks from forming.

When kinking is severe, or worse, when the tissue snaps or rips, and severs the vascular tissue that conducts water, nutrients and carbohydrates, fruits may not develop into the high quality that’s expected from greenhouse-grown tomatoes.

Reducing losses from kinked clusters should be a goal for every tomato grower. As the low-light time of year is approaching, consider how you can modify the greenhouse environment or culture to avoid tomato cluster kinking. Alternatively, consider using supports to ensure all your cluster-type tomatoes will develop into healthy and attractive salable products.

The author is an assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. ccurrey@iastate.edu

Photo: vit | Adobe Stock

Proposed hours of service rule changes published

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a notice of proposed rule-making on changes to hours-of-service (HOS) rules by updating existing regulations for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers.

“FMCSA wants drivers and all CMV stakeholders to share their thoughts and opinions on the proposed changes to hours of service rules that we are putting forward today. We listened directly to the concerns of drivers for rules that are safer and have more flexibility — and we have acted. We encourage everyone to review and comment on this proposal,” said FMCSA Administrator Raymond P. Martinez in a statement.

To read the full story, click here.

Photo © Caleb Jones

Atlanta suburb working with organizations, government to build up urban agriculture

Atlanta nonprofit Food Well Alliance is a collaborative network of local food leaders heading up a new program it believes will be a game-changer for urban agriculture in cities across metro Atlanta. According to a press release, the City Agriculture Plan will do exactly what its name says: bring growers, community leaders and city officials together — guided by the planning expertise of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) — to develop city-wide plans that prioritize urban agriculture. The end goal is thriving community gardens and urban farms providing greater access to locally grown food across the metro Atlanta region, which translates to healthier people, environments and communities.

To ready the full story, click here.

Photo courtesy of Mucci Farms

Mucci Farms acquires controlling interest in Orangeline Farms

Mucci Farms has announced that it has acquired controlling interest of Leamington, Ontario-based Orangeline Farms, including its existing greenhouse and warehouse facilities, and additional land with plans for expansion. Subsequently, the company also announced additional expansion plans in Canada and the United States.

“It’s an exciting time for the company as we continue our aggressive expansion plans to increase our local and regional production,” says Mucci CEO Bert Mucci. “The Orangeline acquisition comes with a 32-acre greenhouse and a warehouse with additional land totaling 100 acres. Consumers are demanding more local production, and we’re listening.”

To read the full story, click here.

Know your customer. It’s one of the most basic tenets of business, but it’s one that can often be hard to track — especially if you don’t get face time with the people you sell to on a regular basis.

But growers are making the time and effort to truly collaborate with their customers and cater their produce to their exact specifications. Ryan Pierce, owner of Fresh Impact Farms, is doing just that by talking to each and every chef he delivers to.

Pierce thrives on feedback, and is innovating the growing process to create high-quality, hyperlocal food in a small, 1,000-square foot operation. He has a direct line to restaurants all over the Washington, D.C. area, creating the exact flavor, texture and color his customers want.

That kind of attention to detail and customer service may very well take him to new levels (and lots of new flavor profiles.) Pierce is breaking the mold, and chefs are loving it. You can read more about the chef-grower relationship in this month’s cover story.

Trends vary throughout the U.S. and Canada, and what might be in high demand for a greenhouse in Kansas, might not be popular in New York. It all depends on your unique customers. So while nationwide trends are always good to keep an eye on, it all comes down to your area.

Sales numbers can always tell you what’s working and what’s not, they can’t tell you about opportunities to grow and tweak your offerings to be even more successful. There could be a niche you haven’t thought of or a plant customers are looking for but can’t find, and you’ll never know until you ask.

Feedback, while not always easy to gather or process, is key to improving any business’ operations and outputs. Whether you’re talking to customers in a retail setting, at a delivery, on the phone, through a mailer or in an email, leave the lines of communication open. And while customers will likely tell you when you’re doing something wrong, they might not always be telling you when you’re doing something right, or when you could be doing something new.

However you choose to gather feedback, don’t let it go to waste. At the end of the season, use it strategically to plan for the coming year. And don’t forget to let your customers know that you appreciate their comments (both positive and negative) to keep the feedback coming. If your customers feel that they’re being heard, that’s a win of its own.