I like to grow things. These days, that means a company, an exceptional little girl, house plants, relationships, and a garden. Over the years, many people have shared with me that they don’t have a green thumb, and thus they shy away from growing plants. I’ve learned, though, that there are a handful of core principles that take care of 99% of plant challenges when applied. I was thinking about this list of principles recently and realized how much overlap there is with the basic wisdom around growing a business. 

Here are my five gardening rules that also work beautifully in a career context:

1. Start with good soil

Laying strategic foundations is crucial to building a solid structure. In a startup or scaleup, your soil consists of your founding documents, the underlying structure for everything. These documents should clearly lay out the company’s reasons for being and ethos. At Feed.fm, I include mission, vision, team mission statements, operating principles, and values in this list. 

2. Water with a consistent rhythm

When you maintain a consistent watering schedule, plant roots receive a steady supply of moisture, which helps them absorb nutrients from the soil more efficiently. 

From a company perspective, you have to get into a regular operating cadence to ensure you are learning as you go, not repeating mistakes, and consistently challenging your teams. One great example of this is objectives and key results (OKR) programs. When I hear from CEOs that their programs are struggling, oftentimes it comes down to a lack of routine and rhythm. Results and learnings have to be discussed every week by every team.

3. Adapt to changing conditions

Climate change is real, pest challenges are different every year, and sometimes plants just don’t take root. Adapting your watering, fertilizer, and pest management solutions are crucial to keeping a healthy garden. 

Similarly, flexibility is paramount in any sector you operate in. Markets change, new competitors emerge, and unexpected challenges arise. Being adaptable and ready to pivot when needed can keep your business thriving. I believe adaptability quotient is as important as emotional intelligence in the workplace.

4. Prune regularly

Pruning is important in gardening, as you have to remove dead matter to make space for new growth. Pruning encourages good growth patterns, improves air circulation, and minimizes potential for pest damage. 

In the office, this translates to regularly evaluating people, products, projects, and processes. It’s easy to fall prey to sunk cost bias when you have invested resources into a major project, but if it’s not working, it can negatively impact the whole company and it behooves you to make the call sooner than later. My team also regularly conducts meeting audits to identify places where pesky, unproductive recurring meetings have infiltrated our weeks. Getting rid of those efficiency drags is important for everyone, especially in growing companies. 

5. Harvest at the right time

Knowing when to gather mature crops is crucial to ensure good quality and highest market value for the harvest. 

When building a company, timing is everything. Knowing how to read signals from your customer market is key to determining when to launch products or scale an existing line. If exiting is your ultimate goal, knowing when your metrics are solid, understanding current valuation trends, and generating competitive interest will help you maximize returns.

Each business and each plant has unique needs and follows different growth patterns. Adapting to the seasons while sticking to tried and true principles, however, leverages collective wisdom and helps you operate more efficiently. I find these same principles helpful and encouraging when you are growing an enterprise. In both cases, you have dynamic systems with ever-changing variables and the ultimate goal to create a thriving ecosystem.

Lauren Pufpaf is president and COO of Feed.fm.