By now we’ve rounded up our most-read features of the year, and next week’s LMDirect! enewsletter will feature our top news stories of the year. (Sign up here if you’re not already a subscriber.)
But we also wanted to draw some attention to a few stories we published this year that created a lot of discussion on social media, that we thought were particularly useful or that we just like.
So, in no particular order, here’s our list of Editors’ Picks from 2015:
- “Committed to the core” by Marisa Palmieri (July 2015)—An inspiring story about how Sun Valley Landscape used “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” to develop its core values after a merger and bring them to life with a volunteer initiative called Commit20.
- “High Performance: The Rule of 5:1” by Phil Harwood (September 2015)—It’s a simple adage, but it’s not always easy to follow: You should say five positive things for every one negative thing. Harwood delves into the lesson he learned when he broke one of his own rules.
- “Government Affairs: Will proposed OT regs affect you?” by Gregg Robertson (September 2015)—There’s been a lot of speculation about how the Department of Labor’s new rules for exempt employees might play out for landscape companies. Robertson breaks it down.
- “Keeping Score” by Marisa Palmieri (November 2015)—Our November cover story shared three practical examples of landscape companies that use key performance indicators to their advantage.
- “Profit Power: 4 measures of success for any owner” by Jeffrey Scott (June 2015)—Ultimately, the ways to gauge personal and business success come down to profit, business value, stress (or lack thereof) and legacy. Which is most important to you?
- “Bruce’s View: Can we pay more?” by Bruce Wilson (April 2015)—Longtime LM columnist Wilson looks at how the industry typically handles pay and what he believes we should be doing.
- “Just say it” by Marisa Palmieri (September 2015)—Inspired by a book excerpt published in the Wall Street Journal, the editor of LM discusses the state of “thank you” in the workplace and why we’d all benefit from appreciating one another a little bit more.
- “If you don’t know…” by Mel Kleiman (January 2015)—LM’s HR columnist explains why if you can’t articulate at least 10 reasons why people should want to work at your company, your recruiting efforts will be an uphill battle. He shares tips to develop your list and “help wanted” messages based on those.
- “Finances for the small operator” by Dan Gordon (February 2015—A reader requested that we cover this topic, but Gordon explains that it doesn’t matter whether you’re big or small. Good financial management knows no size.
- “Optimize your website” by Shaun Kanary (April 2015)—Our marketing contributor gets to the point with useful tips for sprucing up your most important promotion and sales vehicle.
