Be Yourself in Your Business

Plant For Profits Column, Leslie F. Halleck

Do You Feel Free to be You in Your Business?

For those of you who don't "fit the mold", how often do you find yourself either fighting stereotypes in your work life and business, or trying to conform to other people's (often unrealistic) expectations of you? How do you feel when you try to squeeze yourself into a box you don't fit in, just to get the work, keep the job, or maintain a client? It's never comfortable, and it may be costing you more than you think.

Being a woman, people tend to mostly focus on my personality instead of my results. As this happens to me a lot, I thought I should clarify some things.

What do I spend most of my time doing? Well, probably not what many people think.

Yes, I’m a professional certified horticulturist who consults on plant-related projects, I’m a horticulture instructor, and I write plant and gardening books for the public. I’ve spent a career working in plant research, public gardens, landscaping, and independent garden centers, as well as doing a lot of writing. I love growing just about everything, as well as botanizing and helping people immerse themselves and heal in nature. This is my public facing work, and I really enjoy it.

What I don’t spend much time publicly talking about is the bulk of my business work for the past 13 years…which is primarily saving failing or not-yet-profitable businesses in the horticulture industry. Independent garden centers, plant shops, landscape design/install businesses, interiorscapers, green industry products, and the like.

I’m a flipper...or a fixer. It’s what I’m best at. Quickly identifying the weak links and turning them into opportunities. Taking a horticulture business that’s not thriving and getting it on a path of profitable growth and profitable prosperity.

It’s typically not an easy process for the business owner. Facing their weaknesses or “failings” typically triggers a lot of insecurity and defensiveness. Much of which is projected back onto me. It's often a lot easier for people to focus on my personality than the actual problems at hand.

Luckily, I’ve developed pretty thick skin. As such, I’m not a sugar-coating soft-talker. I’m an ADHD, HSP, literal, no-nonsense, non-conformist, deliverer of hard truths. Recently someone called me the “Gordon Ramsey of Garden Center Survival”. LOL. I mean, I’ll take it. My job is to quickly identify the problems that are keeping a business from thriving, and provide new perspectives, options, and tangible solutions for making hard pivots towards profitability.

That said, I think it's important to point out that all it takes as a woman to be compared to Gordon Ramsey - someone who physically stomps around yelling and screaming at people, throwing things at them and calling them donkeys - is to simply have a voice and use it in a straightforward manner and speak your mind. Got it.

Not everyone enjoys working with me nor can stay the course. That’s ok. Newsflash: I don’t enjoy working with everyone I work with either. Most people aren't terribly self-aware about their own personality triats and that they may not be the peachiest people to deal with themselves. But, I’m very conditioned to objectively focus on the work, not the personality. I have trained myself to prioritize the problem and the progress and put aside personality clashes. I’ll hang in there with you if you’ll hang in there with me. I’m not in business to make personal friends. I’m in business to help you be successful, reach your business and personal goals, and achieve profit. I thrive on results.

If you expect me, as a woman, to treat you with kid gloves -or be your mommy, girlfriend, or wife - please look elsewhere for an effective consultant with my expertise and experience who will fill those roles for free. If you DO hang in there, you’ll discover I’m a very generous, caring, empathetic person who truly does have your best interest at heart. I’m just not willing to not tell you the truth to get you where you need to go.

Companies and business owners who welcome differences of opinion, ideas that clash with the status quo, or assertions that may make them uncomfortable, are the ones who create the most opportunities for innovation and growth.

Going along to get along isn't always a path to success. At some point you must own and accept your personality and see it's strengths and benefits. Even if it goes against the grain. That may mean saying "no" to someone who wants you to work in a way that limits your authenticity, expression, and abilities. People are all different, and it's that variety that breeds creativity and progress.

The reality is that personality and personality traits don't have a gender. Neither does straightforward direct communication. Neither does niceness or empathy. If we keep projecting stereotypical expectations onto people we work with because of gender or other societal norms, we're not only keeping them from self-actualizing and manifesting their potential, we're also losing out on the benefits we could garner from giving them the space and understanding to be themselves.