Phase 1: DESIGN YOUR LEADERSHIP ENVIRONMENT

DISCOVER YOUR SWEET SPOT

Design with the End in Mind

"What do you plan on doing with the new space?" I inquired with genuine interest.

You'd be surprised how few of my clients know the answer to this question.

"I'm not sure I know what you're asking," he responded back with equal sincerity. "I thought you were just going to pick out some good-looking trees and shrubs for us. You're the professional. Isn't that why we hired your team?"

"I'm definitely up for advising you along the way," I said reassuringly. "But trust me, designing with the end in mind will help tremendously. Think about it this way: as you imagine the new space we're designing for you, what do you see yourself doing in that space? Are you hosting garden parties with friends? Do you see yourself sitting next to a small waterfall feature in the evenings while reading your favorite novel? Or maybe you picture your grandkids playing Frisbee with you in the backyard on a plush green lawn?"

A warm smile slowly spread across my client's face.

"OK, I get it now. You know, come to think of it, I can see myself doing all three!" he chuckled.

"One thing though, Scott," he shot back.

"Sure, what is it?" By this time, I anticipated a little humor.

"Before I give you my final answer, I just have to ask ... do you have any additional options besides those three? After all, I don't want to limit any fun."

At this comment, we both started laughing.

"Now you're getting it," I grinned.

* * *

I start every job the same way, helping my clients design with the end in mind.

It's always better to talk through their desires in the design phase than to work them out in the build phase. Designing with the end in mind saves them money and it saves me time. Although my landscaping team is always happy to help, and we can do almost anything, most clients don't have an endless supply of money. A little intentional thinking on the front end saves everyone time and money on the back end.

But this principle reaches far beyond waterfalls and flowerbeds. In fact, it touches every single one of us. Although we might not be able to literally design the environment around us, we're each given the responsibility to design a conducive environment within us.

Effective and efficient leaders embody this type of healthy space. Unfortunately, this space is highly uncommon and only reflective of those who function within their Sweet Spot. Perhaps you've heard about the Sweet Spot in other contexts — like baseball, for example. If a batter hits the ball on the Sweet Spot of the bat, he doesn't even need to look to see if he hit the ball over the fence. He just intuitively knows.

But more significant than baseball, we each have the potential for a Sweet Spot in our lives. I define the Sweet Spot as the convergence of three things: Purpose, Passion, and Plan.

Purpose is who you are designed to be.

Passion is what you love to do.

Plan is the strategic convergence of being and doing.

I explain the Sweet Spot like this:

Living and working from our Sweet Spot results from intentional design, not accidental disorder. Similar to what I do with my new landscaping clients, we must design our lives with the end in mind. Unfortunately, too many people just accept their lives rather than lead their lives.

The price of life outside our Sweet Spot proves costly. Our work feels like toil and we spend our energy moving sideways instead of forward. We're not effective and therefore neither are the environments that we create.

But the opposite is true as well. Living to and from our Sweet Spot yields exponential potential.

My mother still tells me that I first found my Sweet Spot at the age of four while playing in the sandbox. Every day in summer, I loved spending time in a gigantic 10-by 15-foot sandpit with toy 'dozers, trailers, and trucks. Like boys my age, I built roads and rivers during playtime. But perhaps unlike other boys, I also built little homes out of sand and then I felt the need to landscape those little properties. I'd use pine cones for shrubs, twigs for trees, and place little stones around freshly-dug miniature swimming pools.

In that vast sand pit, I made a little square shop out of red bricks that I'd found lying around from my father's projects. On top of that square shop, I made a flat roof out of pine boards.

I'd spend nearly all day playing in the sand pit. But just before dinnertime, I'd perform a unique ritual. I'd drive the equipment up onto the trailers, hook them up to the trucks, and then drive the trucks back to the square shop with the flat roof. By this time, mom would make a final dinner call and, according to her, I'd spend a couple more minutes at the shop off-loading the equipment, lining up the trailers, and, finally, backing up the trucks. Ritual complete, I'd head off to dinner, satisfied and smiling.

What about you? Have you ever functioned in your Sweet Spot? Do you know what it is? Is your Passion, Purpose, and Plan clear?

If so, then just like the baseball example, you don't even need to look to see if you're effective. You already know.

Although I haven't always functioned in my Sweet Spot, I've come pretty close.

Regretfully, though, I remember one specific season when I fell out of my Sweet Spot. The price for my mistake proved expensive and I felt like a duck out of water. I almost destroyed my young family financially, not to mention emotionally and relationally as well.

Here's the quick story. Just after I completed college, my dad lost one of his associates. In order to help him in his pinch, I sold the landscaping business in Florida and moved the family up to New York so I could enter the ministry with him. After a couple weeks, I knew I made the wrong choice so I gave a six-month notice of my resignation. To make matters worse, I exchanged one bad decision for half a dozen more. I ended up laboring at six different jobs in three and a half years, including selling life insurance, supplying copiers and fax machines, and operating vending machines and arcade games.

In those years, work felt like work because I wasn't functioning in my calling. I sank like a tank because I left my love of landscaping. I wasn't engaged in the work, so the environments I created in those years weren't engaging either.

Thankfully, today I have a tremendous team around me that...