I got in a fight this weekend.

I came out on top, but man was it a battle.  I am significantly beat up and hurt like crazy, but I won.  My body bears the lacerations of a man who fought a pack of angry alley cats, but it was something far more sinister with which I was contending.

I fought a very tough lilac hedge.

And let me tell you, this hedge was mean and nasty.  It punched way above its weight, and it was huge to begin with: 70 feet long, 20 feet high and 10 feet deep.  And some of the stocks were two inches thick.  I had to use my chain saw, hedge trimmer and loppers to cut it back.

We took 15 feet off the hedge.  I cut and my wife dragged the branches out to create a refuse pile 80 feet long, by 15 feet across, by 4 feet deep.  You may think I am joking when I say it was a fight – I’m not.  It was a battle in many ways.

Here was the problem: the hedge had fallen over so many of the outer edge branches were pointing horizontally.  When I cut those off they now comprised thousands of spears aimed at me as I tried to press through them to get at the stocks on the inside of the hedge.  As I was reaching as far as I could with my chainsaw into the center of the hedge to get those internal stocks, the stocks and branches at the edges would scrape and pierce every exposed piece of skin.

It was like trimming a 20 foot tall porcupine.  My arms and legs are ripped to shreds.

Now, I have no doubt a number of you are reading this and asking, “Do you want a little cheese with that whine?”

Fair enough.  However, this hedge beat me like a rented mule.  I got so angry at times…I said words I don’t usually say.  And, I said them often and loudly enough to be heard above the roar of the chainsaw.  I even invented new words – none of which I can repeat here.  I can only imagine what my neighbours thought…

We should have pruned this hedge a little bit each year, but didn’t.  We let it grow unchecked thinking it would form a massive wall of lilacs, which it did.  It did, that is, until it got so top heavy it fell over onto itself – never to be the same again.

We can be like that.  We need regular pruning.  We need regular corrections, adjustments and discipline that will enable us to grow straight and true.  This “pruning” will also enable us to be more productive.

You see, pruning precedes productivity.

But, we can resist or avoid those regular corrections.  We don’t choose to engage in forums we can get that kind of input: conferences, workshops, seminars, retreats, meetings, coaching, mentoring, peer advisory groups, pastoring, counseling, close friendships and the like.

We oftentimes won’t receive the input of others, the ‘correction’ of others, so we can grow straight and true.  We can choose to live and lead independently and grow unchecked, like our lilac hedge, until one day we begin to collapse and wonder how things got this way.

In order to grow strong and productive we must choose to learn from others.  Count yourself fortunate if you have people in your life who care about you enough to say difficult things to you.  Don’t get offended – get grateful and listen to them.

I love this old proverb;

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”

So what do you need to correct?  What bad habits, false assumptions, and limiting self-beliefs do you need to prune?  You, your leadership and your company will not be as productive as it can be until you surrender to the pruning/correction you need to grow.  If you resist change you can end up like our hedge: nasty, weak and broken down.  Pruning at that stage is no fun at all.

I wish we had pruned regularly along the way and not waited until it got to this.

And you will too.

Pruning always precedes productivity.