For over 25 years, Garth Mahood has been “supplying inspiration” from his shop in Coleraine to thousands of professional and hobby florists all over the world.
Established in 1998, Floristry Warehouse is a UK and Ireland based worldwide suppliers of florist supplies, sundries, craft and gift items. While Garth had never engaged with leadership training before, he knew his default position to be heavily involved in the operational aspects of the business was hindering the future growth of the company. The mind shift happened at the Lead2Grow conference in February 2016, where he was reminded of the need to work ‘on’ not ‘in’ the business and it was time to define and implement a more strategic direction for the future.
In completing the programme, Garth highlighted the benefits of “getting out of the bubble and stepping back to take a different view of the business”. After Lead2Grow he has become more determined and able to delegate tasks to staff. This is critical as Garth makes strategic changes to his staffing structure and proceeds with the recruitment of a new member of staff for the business. The mentoring was particularly important in translating the theory of the modules into real business impact. According to Garth, it was putting a date against each action and being made accountable for making sure it happens that has made the real difference! He said: “it was reassuring to have someone who had been down the road longer to look at my business with fresh eyes and drill down and prioritize the key issues”.
The fresh takeaway from the programme for Garth was linking the concept of authentic purpose driven leadership to the management of his business. This new thought leadership approach from Harvard has served not only to motivate Garth as the leader of his business, but in turn will provide greater inspiration for his staff team in supplying blooming inspiration to customers all over the world.