Jack Jostes [00:00:01]:
If you're looking for a simple framework to become a better manager, or better yet, to teach your managers to become better managers, you've got to read the book The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard.
00:16 – What is The Landscaper’s Book Club?
Jack Jostes [00:00:16]:
Hey everyone, Jack Jostes here, and welcome to The Landscaper's Guide to Sales and Marketing Podcast, where we share sales, leadership, and marketing ideas to help you grow your snow and landscape company. And I just had a book club with my management team at Ramblin Jackson over the book The New One Minute Manager. I'm going to share some of my favorite tips from the book and some takeaways that just from listening to this podcast that you can implement in your own management
Jack Jostes [00:00:44]:
Right now, it's March 2025, and I first read this book over eight years ago, and I was at a very different point in my business at that time. And really, since then I've been one of the primary managers at Ramblin Jackson along with our now COO Jessica Winkler. So it's been me and her primarily managing people and we're grown now. We have nearly 20 employees.
01:06 – Training middle managers at Ramblin Jackson
Jack Jostes [00:01:06]:
Over 20, I think we just hired somebody today. We're going to be at 20, we're going to keep adding. So anyways we're around 20 and we are now building our middle management team where we have other people on the team being managers. And like many landscape companies, those people who are in those middle management positions have been very good at our core processes at both client-facing positions and at tasks where they're crushing tasks. And they've worked their way up into these middle management positions where they're now managing other people. And that's similar because many landscape companies are the same way. When I became a manager and as I started hiring people, it was very different from doing what I was successful at, which in the beginning was search engine optimization. That was one of my core skills and a big part of that was writing and then learning to then create an SEO process and hire an SEO strategist and a copywriter and eventually a team of copywriters was various moments of growth for me in the company and then hiring project managers who hired those people. And the One Minute Management framework was instrumental in helping me become a manager and teach those people.
Jack Jostes [00:02:21]:
So it's timely that we're reading it again because we're at another major growth milestone. What I like about the One Minute Manager book is it's, it's a tiny book. You can read it. We actually are reading it for the Ramblin Jackson Wild Frontier Mastermind. So our top-level clients and I are also reading this and talking about it. And one of my clients said that he crushed it in a week reading it 15 minutes a day. So it's a short book, it's simple.
02:51 – One-minute goals: Setting clear expectations
Jack Jostes [00:02:51]:
And one of the premises of the book is having clear one minute goals. Meaning, like in a minute, can you get clear with somebody on, like, what is the goal that your role is striving towards? That's something that I found in my own business and in business in general gets lost along the way because we often has multiple hats that we're wearing in small business. Multiple things. And helping somebody plan their week at Ramblin Jackson is a key role of the manager. We have weekly plans where the employee is creating their plan and the manager is reviewing it. And that helps create the opportunity for one minute goals where you're getting clear on paper, literally writing it down, or in our case a Google Doc. So that way both people know, did we reach the goal or not? Are we working on the same thing? On the same thing?
Jack Jostes [00:03:45]:
Having these weekly goals and then weekly meetings also gives an opportunity for another key thing from the book, which is One-Minute Praisings, which is acknowledging when people are doing something well. And a phrase I learned from my coach, Wayne Herring, is to "Praise Partial Progress.” So if you're teaching somebody or you're working on helping them improve an aspect of their work together, acknowledging when they've done even part of it better, like, hey, I appreciate the way you loaded the truck today.
04:14 – One-minute praise and redirection tips
Jack Jostes [00:04:14]:
And one of the things I liked was that you put the shovels back where they go. And that helps us, all of us, get out of the job site faster and earn our bonuses because we're more productive or whatever it is. So finding those little things, and I find that you've got to find these ways to praise people because then they keep going, they keep doing the things that are, that are positive, and they feel good about them. And also having more praise enables the 1-minute redirection, which is when things are off track. Helping people get back on track and having a conversation around something that maybe, maybe isn't going the way you want it to be or something like that. But if all the employee ever hears from you is negative, what they might feel is negative, oh, I'm only getting one-minute redirections, and I'm not getting any praise. They may feel like you don't appreciate them or you don't notice them. They may be less receptive to the 1-minute redirections.
Jack Jostes [00:05:11]:
Those are some of the highlights, you know, the big picture of the book. And I wanted to share some of the notes from our book club with my management team. One of the questions that we brainstormed, and I did use ChatGPT to help plan this, was how confident are you that your team knows what's expected of them and what will happen if they fall short? And we all agreed we could do a lot better with this at Ramblin Jackson, and we have work on track to improve that. So, how confident are you that, that your team knows what's expected of them and what will happen if they fall short? Are they afraid that they're just going to get fired all of a sudden? Do they know that you're going to support them? Do you know that they know that you're going to review the work? What actually happens at Ramblin Jackson? Since we're in this growth phase, getting really clear on role is an important thing there. Another question that we brainstormed was what holds you back from providing immediate feedback when things are both positive? What holds you back from providing a one minute praising, hey, I noticed you did this. I really appreciate that.
06:20 – Positive feedback systems (like Beef Jerky Club)
Jack Jostes [00:06:20]:
Or something even bigger. You know, we have a beef jerky club at Ramblin Jackson where every week you can nominate people for upholding or not upholding the core values.
Jack Jostes [00:06:32]:
But typically, it's people nominating themselves when they haven't upheld a core value. But that allows the team to then read that aloud and praise that person. And it's a pretty positive part of our culture every week. And then every month we have a game where you get to pick a bingo board. There's a quarterly prize and a $1,000 cash prize at the end of the year if you, if you won the most nominations, and then we donate to your nonprofit of your choice if you have nominated the most. So that's one of the ways that works from a positive standpoint. And I shared an example today in our book club that our Marketing Coordinator wrote a really great social media post. And this was something that we'd been working on, is improving our social media post quality.
Jack Jostes [00:07:18]:
And I just messaged him and said, Hey, I really liked this. Did you write this and tell me more? And he told me how he did it. And that was a small thing, but it was acknowledging something that had gone well. So what's something small that you can acknowledge right away in your team and can you coach your managers to?
Jack Jostes [00:07:39]:
Another thing that Wayne shared with me was catch them doing something. Right. Right. So in management looking for people doing things well and saying, hey, I noticed that you did this thing that I asked you to do differently this time and I, I appreciate it.
Jack Jostes [00:07:55]:
Or hey, I really like the way you did this. Catch them doing something right. Some of the things that came up in our book club about why we might be avoiding doing this is Midwest nice. Yeah, I'm from Illinois. I've got people from Minnesota and Wisconsin and all over the place. I think you could probably insert any region and oh, we're Southern, nice. Oh, we're Texan nice. Oh, we're California nice.
Jack Jostes [00:08:19]:
Whatever. I mean, a lot of people avoid giving immediate feedback when things are off track because it feels uncomfortable. But I shared that focusing on my role as the CEO and what value do I need to bring to the organization and how will it serve our customers? For me to bring feedback to a Rambler is how I find the strength to do it. Because if I don't, I'd be letting my other teammates down, I'd be letting my client down. And the one minute manager framework gives you a way to give that feedback. Those one minute redirections in a way that feels pretty good. I think when it's done well, and knowing that clarity is always king in business, I think a lot of times when I make mistakes as a leader, it's because I haven't been clear enough with what I'm asking about. Maybe I give bad instructions, and giving clearer instructions or requests always helps. And when things are off track, helping people get clear on what's expected.
09:21 – Handling low culture fit despite high performance
Jack Jostes [00:09:24]:
One of the things we talked about, though, is that some people who are just unwilling to receive feedback or who create a walking on eggshells type experience are ultimately a poor culture fit. At Ramblin Jackson. And I've learned that if people aren't coachable and if they can't collaborate on a team and they can't receive feedback, that's a sign that they're a poor culture fit. Because when there's that walking on eggshell experience, people don't communicate as much. They don't ideate, they don't rumble, they don't brainstorm, they don't raise the stakes as much when there are people who are real prickly about any kind of feedback. Since removing some people like that, I found that the collaboration has gone up. So I'm curious, how do you handle people who are.
Jack Jostes [00:10:14]:
Maybe they're. I'm in a mastermind. They shared with me that somebody could be a high performer but a low culture fit. Have you had that experience, and how do you handle it? I found that once you know that's the case, it's sometimes your job as the manager to help that person find a new team where they may be a better fit. And then the third thing we talked about was if we practiced this level of accountability and if we practiced the one-minute manager, what would be better? And ultimately, all of our jobs would be way less stressful. We'd have better customer service, better experience. I think people would feel better and empowered, which was one of the words one of my managers used, is that they'd feel empowered to do their job well and know that they were praised for doing it, and feeling clear on it. This was a great book.
Jack Jostes [00:11:05]:
It is one of the books that I will keep on my shelf and read again. At another point, I just got rid of over 20 books from my bookshelf because some of them I read weren't even worth finishing. And maybe I did finish them, but they weren't worth reading again, and I wouldn't want to pass them on to somebody. So I just donated them to the library. This is a book that's worth reading. It's short. Check it out!
11:46 – Join Jack’s Book Club + next steps
Jack Jostes [00:11:34]:
And hey, would you like to be in my book club? We have four book clubs per year for our Wild Frontier Clients, where I pick books that are excellent and we read them. We read them together.
Jack Jostes [00:11:46]:
We had one of our best masterminds recently, so we're going to continue it. We're doing the One Minute Manager. Reach out to us for a conversation at landscapersguide.com/brainstorm. We'll have a 15-minute marketing brainstorm. Help you figure out who is your Hell Yes Customer? And is your sales and marketing dialed in to reach them? And do you have the right resources, whether it's marketing or a mastermind like ours, or a book club, or the right podcast episode to help you get on track? So reach out to us at landscapersguide.com/brainstorm. My name's Jack Jostes. It's been a pleasure talking with you today, and I look forward to talking with you next week on The Landscaper's Guide.
Jack Jostes [00:12:29]:
Thanks so much for checking out today's episode. If you want more business ideas to grow your snow and landscape company, like this video and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for weekly sales, marketing, and leadership inspiration. My name's Jack Jostes, and I'll see you in the next video.
Show Notes:
???? Watch the full episode + transcript:
https://landscapersguide.com/the-one-minute-manager-better-leadership-for-landscapers-in-60-seconds-or-less#video
???? Get The New One Minute Manager:
https://www.amazon.com/New-One-Minute-Manager/dp/0062367544
???? Join the Ramblin Jackson Book Club (Wild Frontier Clients Only):
https://landscapersguide.com/brainstorm
???? Get Your Marketing Toolbox + Beef Jerky:
https://landscapersguide.com/toolbox
???? Connect with Jack:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackjostes/