What is *Growing Great Employees* about?

*Growing Great Employees* provides actionable strategies for developing exceptional team members through coaching, feedback, and leadership development. Erika Andersen outlines practical tools to identify potential, create growth opportunities, and cultivate high-performance workplace cultures.

Who should read *Growing Great Employees*?

This book is essential for managers, HR professionals, and leaders seeking to build strong teams. It’s particularly valuable for those overseeing career development programs or needing frameworks to transform average performers into standout contributors.

Is *Growing Great Employees* worth reading?

Yes – the book offers evidence-based techniques used by Andersen with clients like NBCUniversal and Yale School of Public Health. Its focus on practical application over abstract theory makes it valuable for hands-on leadership development.

What are the key concepts in *Growing Great Employees*?

Andersen introduces: - The **GROW model** (Goals, Reality, Options, Will) for coaching conversations - **Feedback loops** that reinforce desired behaviors - Techniques to identify employees’ "best selves" - Strategies for creating psychological safety in development

How does *Growing Great Employees* approach leadership development?

The book emphasizes leader-as-coach methodologies, teaching managers to ask empowering questions rather than provide directives. Andersen provides scripts for difficult conversations and frameworks for aligning individual growth with organizational needs.

What coaching frameworks does Erika Andersen recommend?

Key frameworks include: - **Skill vs Will Matrix** for diagnosing performance issues - **Future-Visioning** exercises to align employee aspirations with business goals - **Micro-commitment** strategies for incremental behavior change

How does *Growing Great Employees* address common management mistakes?

Andersen identifies pitfalls like unclear expectations and generic feedback. The book provides checklists for setting SMART goals, conducting effective one-on-ones, and customizing development plans based on individual motivations.

What makes *Growing Great Employees* different from other management books?

Unlike theoretical leadership texts, Andersen’s approach combines behavioral psychology with real-world corporate case studies. The book focuses on sustainable habit-building over quick fixes, supported by Proteus International’s 30+ years of executive coaching experience.

Growing Great Employees

Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers

Erika Andersen

4(5140 Reviews)

Overview of Growing Great Employees

"Growing Great Employees" transforms management into gardening - nurturing talent with active listening and coaching. Media executives praise its invaluable guidance during tough restructurings. Beyond corporate walls, teachers and parents apply its principles, proving great leadership transcends boardrooms. Ready to cultivate extraordinary teams?

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Chapter 1

The Green Thumb of Management: Nurturing Talent for Extraordinary Results

Erika Andersen's "Growing Great Employees" has become a modern management classic since its 2007 publication, downloaded over 20,000 times on ChangeThis.com and praised by Harvard Business Review. What makes this book stand out in the crowded leadership space? Andersen's gardening metaphor resonates deeply with managers at all levels who recognize that, like plants, employees thrive with consistent, skillful attention and wither without it. The book's practical approach has made it a favorite among executives at companies like NBCUniversal and GE, who appreciate how it transforms abstract management concepts into tangible skills anyone can master. Even beyond the corporate world, parents, teachers, and community leaders have found its principles transformative for developing the people in their care. As management legend Peter Drucker once noted, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" - and Andersen's approach shows precisely how to cultivate that culture, one employee at a time.

Chapter 2

Preparing the Soil: The Art of Listening

If management were gardening, listening would be the rich soil that makes everything else possible. Just as gardeners must prepare their soil before planting, managers must create an environment where employee growth can happen - and that environment begins with listening. Most managers jump to solutions too quickly before fully understanding situations. When an employee enters your office with a problem, your internal "self-talk" - that running commentary in your head - often says things like "Oh no, here he is again. Always complaining," creating feelings of irritation that affect your behavior. By consciously changing your self-talk to "I want John to learn how to resolve issues with colleagues," you shift your feelings and subsequent behavior. Listening isn't an innate talent but a learnable skill built on four core practices. First, paying attention means giving someone your complete focus - physically, verbally, and mentally. When we don't pay attention, people feel unheard and unappreciated. Second, inviting encourages others to speak through physical gestures (nodding), verbal gestures ("mm-hmm"), and brief questions that prompt continued sharing. Third, questioning from genuine curiosity seeks to understand the speaker's perspective ("Do you see distribution as part of the problem?") rather than disguising opinions as questions ("Isn't it true that distribution is the main problem?"). Finally, restating - summarizing the essence of what someone has said in your own words - completes the feedback loop between speaker and listener. Consider two scenarios between manager Jessica and employee Allen discussing problems with vendor Natalie. In the poor example, Jessica is distracted, dismissive, and makes assumptions without listening. In the effective example, Jessica gives Allen her full attention, asks clarifying questions, restates his concerns, and helps him solve his own problem. Both conversations took exactly the same amount of time, countering the "I don't have time to listen" excuse. Good listening creates clarity and empowers employees to solve problems effectively. When you truly listen, you create that fertile soil of mutual respect where excellent work flourishes.

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Chapter 3

Plan Before You Plant: Designing Your Workplace

Just as gardeners need to plan before planting, managers must thoughtfully design their workplace rather than randomly "plop in" employees. This planning involves two essential steps: deciding what kind of workplace you want to create and clarifying the specific jobs required for success. When planning your workplace, you must answer two questions: "What do you need to achieve?" and "How do you want people to work together to get there?" While most managers understand their goals, they often fail to clarify how they want work accomplished. Some managers value teamwork and innovation, while others prioritize independence and precision. Hiring someone with technical qualifications but mismatched work style leads to the painful "not a fit for the culture" scenario. Core competencies are capabilities people need to succeed in your organization. To identify these qualities, you can find exemplars (people who already demonstrate desired characteristics), look for clues (analyze environmental indicators like common phrases or values), or work from established competency frameworks. Once selected, competencies should be defined with 3-5 behavioral descriptors that clearly articulate what success looks like in observable terms. After establishing core competencies, you must define specific roles - just as different plants serve different functions in a garden. The author distinguishes between tasks (efforts) and responsibilities (results). Using two executive assistants as examples, she shows how responsibility-focused employees understand the outcomes they're accountable for rather than just completing tasks. A responsibility-focused approach makes employees appear more professional, clearer about the big picture, and able to work independently. Consider Jorge Lopez, a new GM at SENSIA who needs to hire an HR Director. Jorge and his team first establish core competencies for their region: teamwork, flexibility, innovation, decisiveness, and honesty. They then create a comprehensive job description focused on results rather than tasks, including key responsibilities (recruiting, hiring, employee development), time allocation for each responsibility, specific tasks under each area, and required abilities. Like a gardener who clearly understands what kind of garden they want to create, successful managers must define the workplace they want to build and identify what kinds of jobs and people will help achieve that vision.

Chapter 4

Picking Your Plants: The Art of Hiring Right

Traditional interviewing often fails because candidates may have inaccurate self-perceptions or simply tell employers what they want to hear. A resume is like an inadequate plant tag that merely states "I grew successfully in other people's gardens." Scenario-based interviewing offers a more effective approach that reveals candidates' true capabilities and fit. Through Jorge's search for an HR director, we see the stark difference between traditional and scenario-based interviewing. In traditional interviewing, Jorge asks leading questions that telegraph the "right" answer, resulting in nearly identical responses from all candidates. With scenario-based interviewing, Jorge establishes a clear scenario about the startup environment, asks an open "what-if" question about their approach, then simply listens. This reveals three distinctly different candidates with varying approaches and strengths. The process is simple: establish the scenario, ask a "what-if" question, and stop and listen. The job description serves as the perfect resource for crafting these questions. For the "recruitment and selection" responsibility, Jorge develops a specific scenario about hiring 80+ people in the next few months while ensuring managers can participate in the process. To document your findings, create an interview sheet that functions as a "plant tag" to record critical information about each candidate. Include the candidate's name, interviewer's name, date, scenario-based questions with space for notes, a post-interview assessment of skills and competencies, and an overall rating. For even more insight, consider scenario-based simulations that allow you to "try out" prospective employees before hiring them. While scenario-based interviewing reveals how candidates think, simulations show how they actually act. These simulations create replicas of key job elements, allowing hiring managers to observe candidates performing real work tasks before making hiring decisions. After establishing and building this model, Jorge runs a simulation with his final three candidates. Each meets with stakeholders about staffing requests and participates in a senior staff meeting. During debriefs, there's strong consensus favoring the third candidate, who demonstrated excellent teamwork, HR knowledge, and responsiveness. Like a gardener who carefully selects plants suited to their garden's conditions, effective hiring creates the equivalent of a "plant tag" for candidates, revealing their actual skills and competencies rather than just their claims.

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Chapter 5

Not Too Deep and Not Too Shallow: The Art of Onboarding

Proper planting depth is critical in gardening - seeds planted too deep won't reach the light, while those scattered on the surface may blow away before rooting. Similarly, employee onboarding requires finding the right balance: providing too little information leaves new hires struggling to figure things out, while overwhelming them with excessive information can paralyze them with fear. Proper employee onboarding means answering three fundamental questions new hires have: "Who do I need to know?", "How do things happen around here?", and "What's expected of me?" The challenge is providing appropriate detail at the right time without overwhelming them. Long-term employees often put critical knowledge "on automatic" and forget to share it with newcomers. When addressing who new employees need to know, identify their key interactions, important company figures, and others crucial to their success. For explaining how things get done, cover systems, procedures, cultural expectations, and unacceptable behaviors. Use core competencies as a framework for explaining cultural expectations, providing practical examples of how values like teamwork manifest in daily operations. Be transparent about workplace norms and potential "landmines" - like not using competitors' products or knowing when certain colleagues shouldn't be approached. When clarifying what's expected, translate job descriptions into daily work, highlight tasks where expectations might differ from industry norms, identify short-term priorities, and explain the "why" behind these priorities. Also communicate how ongoing expectations will be shared - whether through weekly one-on-ones or more ad hoc check-ins. The difference between great and poor teachers isn't about subject knowledge but teaching approach. Great teachers align their methods with how people naturally learn. The LearningPath model shows learning as a cyclical process. To effectively use this approach, pay attention to signs of information overload and use techniques to check understanding. Rather than asking "Do you have any questions?" (which rarely yields useful responses), ask curiosity-based questions like "How do you see yourself making use of this form?" To properly orient new employees, prepare thoroughly before their arrival by creating an accurate job description, arranging introductions to key colleagues, selecting a "buddy" for daily questions, and ensuring their workspace is ready. On the first day, clear your calendar to personally welcome them, provide essential company information, give an office tour, introduce them to support staff, and schedule meetings with important colleagues. Like a gardener who plants at just the right depth, effective onboarding provides enough information for employees to thrive without overwhelming them.

Chapter 6

The Gardener's Mind: Developing a Coaching Mindset

Successful gardeners and managers share a similar mindset when facing challenges. While inexperienced gardeners might panic when plants struggle, reacting with excessive interventions, experienced gardeners remain calm and provide appropriate support. Similarly, confident managers respond to employee mistakes by gathering information, considering their own role in the situation, and collaboratively addressing issues. This difference stems from underlying beliefs or "mind-sets" - panicked managers often harbor negative beliefs about themselves or their employees, while effective managers possess "the mind-set of a coach": believing in their people's potential and genuinely wanting to help them succeed. Without this fundamental belief in an employee's capabilities, effective management becomes virtually impossible, as employees can sense when managers don't believe in them. We often believe our mindsets are fixed, but in reality, we change our beliefs constantly. The process involves recognizing dissonance between what we currently believe and what we hope for, then working to resolve that dissonance. Using the example of learning to tango, the process involves questioning your initial belief ("I'll never dance the tango"), gathering new data (recognizing your rhythm and that others have learned), testing the data (taking lessons), and finally revising your belief when you succeed. Consider an executive who feared his new boss hated him and he would lose his job. By questioning his negative beliefs, gathering alternative explanations, and testing them, he discovered a more positive reality that changed his behavior and improved the relationship. To maintain a positive mindset, practice "good mental hygiene" by consciously reminding yourself of the process you've gone through to reach more accurate beliefs. Like a good gardener trusting plants to grow, managers must trust employees' ability to develop while providing appropriate support. When negative thoughts resurface based on flimsy evidence (like an unanswered email), talk to yourself supportively: "Remember all the indicators that contradict this negative belief? Let's not blow this out of proportion." The coaching mindset isn't just positive thinking - it's a disciplined approach to managing your own beliefs so you can truly support your employees' growth.

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Chapter 7

A Mixed Bouquet: Understanding Different Work Styles

Just as gardens contain diverse plants with unique needs, teams include people with different work styles requiring specific approaches. Being "usefully attentive" means directing your focus toward information that helps support each employee's particular growth needs. The Social Style model helps understand these differences. Developed by Roger Reid and Dr. David Merrill in the 1960s, this model can predict how people approach tasks, what they focus on, their interpersonal strengths and weaknesses, and how they prefer to be managed. The model is built on three behavioral dimensions. Assertiveness refers to how much others perceive you trying to persuade them, with highly assertive people speaking quickly and being forceful, while less assertive people move more slowly and gather information before expressing opinions. Responsiveness measures how much you reveal emotions - highly responsive people are easy to "read" emotionally and people-oriented, while low-responsive individuals focus on facts and logic. These dimensions create a grid with four Social Styles: Drivers (high assertive, low responsive), Expressives (high assertive, high responsive), Amiables (low assertive, high responsive), and Analyticals (low assertive, low responsive). The third dimension, Versatility, measures your willingness to adapt your behaviors to make others comfortable. Each style has distinct characteristics and needs different management approaches: Drivers focus on "getting it done" and excel when tasks need completing on time and on budget. They thrive with clarity about expectations, maximum autonomy, and rewards for achievement. Help them grow by teaching them to seek others' perspectives through dialogue and consensus building. Expressives thrive on "getting it further" and breaking new ground. They contribute fresh perspectives, innovation, and energy to teams. Manage them by providing freedom, allowing them to think aloud and explore options. Help them grow by teaching them to do "reality checks" - articulating their ideas clearly and considering implications. Amiables excel at "getting to it together," naturally understanding the power of engagement and teamwork. Support them with well-defined structure, context for decisions, and consistent backing. Help them grow by teaching them to "take a stand" - considering both the negative consequences of inaction and positive outcomes of decisive action. Analyticals focus on precision, accuracy, and balanced facts. They thrive when given sufficient information, time for analysis, and balanced feedback. Teaching them to share their thinking process helps others understand their conclusions and supports their efforts. The more versatile someone is, the easier they'll adapt to new approaches. While it may be harder to use growth strategies with employees of low versatility, they'll benefit most from learning to "stretch" in ways that significantly increase their adaptability. Like a gardener who understands the specific needs of different plants, effective managers tailor their approach to each employee's unique style.

Chapter 8

Staking and Weeding: Feedback and Agreements

Just as gardeners must perform regular maintenance to keep plants thriving, managers must attend to fundamental practices that support employee growth. Listening serves as organizational "mulch" - creating a supportive environment while protecting against extremes. Like mulch that suppresses weeds, retains moisture, and enriches soil, regular listening maintains respect, ensures concerns are aired, and helps teams work efficiently during challenging times. Making clear performance agreements is compared to staking plants - providing necessary support to prevent employees from "sprawling" into others' responsibilities or focusing on less important tasks. Effective agreements must align with the company's vision and strategic goals, the department's role in achieving those goals, and the employee's understanding and abilities. The three-step process for making clear agreements begins with Clarify - creating a clear mental picture of what needs to be done, establishing context and rationale for why it matters, listening to the employee's perspective, and checking for obstacles. For new employees, provide more detailed instructions on how to accomplish tasks; for experienced staff, focus more on outcomes while giving freedom on methods. The second step, Commit, ensures both manager and employee are truly agreeing to the same thing. Key elements include asking the employee to summarize their understanding of what both parties have agreed to do, and establishing clear benchmarks and timelines. This approach reveals any misunderstandings immediately and often leads to employee-initiated improvements to the plan, increasing ownership in the process. The third step, Support, ensures that agreements lead to actual results rather than becoming forgotten intentions. Managers must honor their commitments, provide ongoing feedback, and maintain a coaching mindset that believes in employee success. Corrective feedback is the management equivalent of pruning in gardening - something managers often resist despite its essential role in employee growth. The only effective approach is specific, timely feedback that includes impact. This means describing observed behaviors (not attitudes), explaining why the change matters, and how important it is to business success. The "camera check" method helps managers focus on observable behaviors rather than making judgments about character, which dramatically reduces defensiveness and makes feedback actionable. Positive feedback is equally important. Unlike corrective feedback, positive feedback doesn't require introducing the topic or getting the other's point of view - most people don't resist hearing good things about themselves. The only focus should be making sure the feedback is specific, timely, and includes the impact. Like garden maintenance that yields tremendous benefits despite seeming complicated at first, making clear agreements and giving feedback becomes easier and more rewarding with practice.

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Chapter 9

Letting It Spread: The Art of Delegation

Just as plants naturally spread and propagate when properly tended, employees who've been well-managed develop a natural urge to grow and expand their responsibilities. Delegation is the skill of channeling this growth urge to benefit the employee, organization, and manager. Though most managers acknowledge delegation's importance, many admit they struggle with it, often defaulting to "it's easier to do it myself." Delegation means transferring responsibility for an area of work to an employee - not abdication, micromanagement, task assignment, or simply making someone else do work. The delegation model consists of three key steps: 1. Prepare - Before meeting the employee, define both the work area to be delegated and appropriate autonomy levels for this employee doing this work. This helps clarify the "size and shape" of the responsibility and determine where you're comfortable giving autonomy. 2. Discuss/Agree - Share your definition of the work area with the employee to ensure mutual understanding, then discuss autonomy levels to define how responsibility will transfer over time. The employee then creates a document summarizing what you've agreed upon. 3. Support - Both parties honor their commitments while you provide timely, balanced feedback about the employee's performance. Most importantly, you work to increase confidence in the employee, gradually increasing their autonomy until they have full responsibility with minimal involvement from you. When delegating, focus on giving employees the big picture rather than step-by-step specifics. Cover the overall definition, key people involved, recent history, important timeframes, skills needed (with coaching availability), and expected results or standards. After defining the responsibility area, create a confidence continuum for each element of the project. Place aspects where you have high confidence in your employee's abilities (like client relations) on the right side with minimal oversight (monthly updates). Put elements where you lack confidence (like detail orientation) on the left with more support (reviewing communications before they go out). This tailored approach prevents both micromanagement of capable employees and setting up inexperienced ones to fail. Jorge's delegation conversation with Gloria exemplifies the model in action. After preparing thoroughly with a confidence continuum that mapped her strengths and growth areas, Jorge conducts a structured discussion about the senior team facilitation role. They agree on specific support mechanisms including pre-meeting preparation, a signaling system during meetings, and post-meeting feedback. After a successful delegation conversation, ongoing support ensures continued success. The key is to assess the quality of work in areas where you have less confidence, then respond to improvements by offering more independence. Remember, employees don't need to do things exactly your way - they just need to achieve the agreed-upon results. Delegating well not only helps employees grow and become more capable, it frees managers to focus on activities that best support organizational success - from creating streamlined processes to building stronger client relationships or developing new products.

Chapter 10

Some Plants Don't Make It: When Termination is Necessary

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you must let an employee go. Like a gardener who finally removes troublesome plants from the garden, firing someone brings both relief and discomfort. Unless the person has done something terrible, you should feel badly about termination. But when you've exhausted all reasonable efforts, termination becomes the only viable option. At this point, keeping the person is harmful to the company, the team, you, and ultimately the employee themselves. Firing someone requires the same careful preparation as a medical operation - you must prepare thoroughly, execute with precision, and ensure proper follow-up. You need absolute certainty about your decision; you can't "leap a canyon in two tries." Acknowledge your feelings about the situation - sadness, anxiety, anger, guilt - as this awareness will help you stay on track and prevent manipulation. Before terminating an employee, ensure you're completely committed to this course of action - not just rationally but viscerally. Craft a simple, clear message that acknowledges the difficulty, states the termination directly, briefly explains why, and outlines immediate next steps. Avoid both accusatory language and false positivity. Anticipate potential difficult reactions so you won't be caught off guard. Choose your timing and location carefully - typically at day's end, preferably Thursday, giving the person a weekend to process their emotions. Avoid terminations near holidays or birthdays. Select a completely private space that isn't the employee's own territory. Never fire someone during a meal or through impersonal means like email or phone. When delivering the message, state your prepared points, respond calmly to emotions without engaging in debate, and move efficiently through the process. Resist both softening the blow with compliments (which creates confusion) and punishing the person with elaborate criticism (which is legally risky and ethically questionable). Your goal is to maintain the employee's dignity while being clear and final. After termination, attend to three critical areas: First, take care of company requirements by ensuring all legal and HR processes are completed and company property is returned. Second, take care of the terminated employee by avoiding negative comments about them to others. Third and most importantly, take care of your team by announcing the departure neutrally ("Joe has left the company as of Thursday"), clearly communicating next steps regarding work coverage and replacement, and demonstrating through your consistent behavior that success on your team comes from fulfilling responsibilities and being good company citizens. Once you've completed a necessary termination and properly managed the aftermath, you'll likely experience significant benefits. Your team will typically coalesce in new, more effective ways. You'll reclaim the time and energy previously spent managing a problematic employee, allowing you to focus on team members who deserve and benefit from your attention. Like a gardener who has removed plants that weren't thriving, you'll likely feel renewed energy and pleasure in your work.

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Chapter 11

The Master Gardener: Pursuing Excellence in Management

Like a teenage gardener learning to tend flowers, mastering employee development satisfies our fundamental human need to excel at something meaningful. True mastery emerges when people find passion in an activity, recognize their potential to excel at it, and believe it will provide something important to them. Mastery requires confronting self-imposed limitations repeatedly. You must believe in your own potential - without this belief, you'll abandon pursuit when discomfort arises. All mastery involves discomfort: physical pain when developing physical skills, mental strain when learning new concepts, or emotional discomfort from feeling inadequate. In areas where you've excelled, you've chosen to push through these barriers repeatedly. I've watched countless people talk themselves out of pursuing achievable dreams. When we encounter discomfort in mastering something, we often create self-defeating narratives: "This feels bad/awkward/embarrassing/frightening/silly. I'm probably not going to make it anyway, so why endure the pain?" Overcoming these negative beliefs requires questioning them, gathering new information that challenges them, and revising them into more supportive self-talk. Many brilliant people perform poorly in traditional educational settings yet excel when pursuing passions through their natural learning styles. To achieve mastery, you must discover how you learn best and follow that approach even if others claim you're "not doing it right." People learn primarily through doing, hearing, seeing, reading/writing, and reflecting - most have one or two preferred styles. Experiment to find what works best for you. The simplest yet hardest part of mastery is practice - doing something repeatedly until it becomes habit. The most challenging but ultimately rewarding aspect is working on your weakest areas. A CEO I coached was excellent at the positive aspects of leadership - inspiring vision and building trust - but avoided the negative parts like giving corrective feedback or saying no. This limitation prevented true mastery until he began practicing these difficult skills. Consider Josie's story eighteen months later. She's now managing Ed, Jim, and a new designer, Li, showing remarkable progress as a manager. In a pivotal conversation, Andy reveals he's leaving for a bigger opportunity and recommends Josie take over his position. Though initially shocked, she accepts enthusiastically, affirming her desire to "get really good at this." Like a master gardener who has developed deep knowledge and intuition about plants, mastery in managing employees comes through persistent practice, self-awareness, and the courage to push beyond comfort zones. The reward is not just professional success but the profound satisfaction of helping others grow and thrive under your care.

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Key Themes in Growing Great Employees

talent development
active listening skills
organizational culture design
competency based hiring
employee empowerment

Quotes from Growing Great Employees

Listening isn't an innate talent but a learnable skill.
Good listening creates clarity and empowers employees.
Hiring someone with mismatched work style leads to the painful 'not a fit for the culture' scenario.
A resume is like an inadequate plant tag.

Characters in Growing Great Employees

Erika AndersenAuthor and management expert
AllenEmployee used in a case study on effective listening
Jorge LopezGeneral Manager at SENSIA used as a case study

About the Author

Erika Andersen is a bestselling author and a leadership development expert. She wrote Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers to equip managers with actionable strategies for building high-performing teams.

As a founding partner of Proteus International, a coaching and consulting firm focused on leader readiness, Andersen draws on three decades of experience working with executives at NBCUniversal, GE, Facebook, and Hyatt Hotels. Her books, including Leading So People Will Follow and Being Strategic, establish her as a trusted voice in organizational strategy and people management.

Andersen reinforces her authority through regular contributions to Forbes’ leadership blog and globally ranked podcasts like The Proteus Leader Show. Her frameworks have been adopted by Fortune 500 companies. Translated into six languages, her work combines academic rigor with real-world applications, reflecting her belief that "great employees are grown, not hired."

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From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

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1M+ learners

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

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@Pitiful

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@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."

@Moemenn

"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."

@Chloe, Solo founder, LA

117

"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."

@Raaaaaachelw

"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."

@Matt, YC alum

108

"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."

@Erin, Investment Banking Associate , NYC

254

"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."

@djmikemoore

"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."

@Pitiful

4.5K

"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."

@SofiaP

"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"

@Jaded_Falcon

201

"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."

@OojasSalunke

"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."

@Leo, Law Student, UPenn

483

"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"

@Cashflowbubu

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Chapter 9

Growing Great Employees

OverviewOverview of Growing Great Employees

One book. Many ways to hear it.

The Green Thumb of Management: Nurturing Talent for Extraordinary Results

Preparing the Soil: The Art of Listening

See every word as you hear it

Plan Before You Plant: Designing Your Workplace

Picking Your Plants: The Art of Hiring Right

Get more out of Growing Great Employees

Not Too Deep and Not Too Shallow: The Art of Onboarding

The Gardener's Mind: Developing a Coaching Mindset

See every word as you hear it

A Mixed Bouquet: Understanding Different Work Styles

Staking and Weeding: Feedback and Agreements

Get more out of Growing Great Employees

Letting It Spread: The Art of Delegation

Some Plants Don't Make It: When Termination is Necessary

See every word as you hear it

The Master Gardener: Pursuing Excellence in Management

You made it to the end of Growing Great Employees

Key Themes in Growing Great Employees

Quotes from Growing Great Employees

Characters in Growing Great Employees

About the Author

Download Summary of Growing Great Employees

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FAQs About This Book

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Is Growing Great Employees worth reading?

What are the key concepts in Growing Great Employees?

Part of a Learning Plan

Capacitación inicial para personal nuevo

Discover more

1,000,000+ curious minds.

1,000,000+ curious minds.

One book. Many ways to hear it.

The Green Thumb of Management: Nurturing Talent for Extraordinary Results

Preparing the Soil: The Art of Listening

See every word as you hear it

Plan Before You Plant: Designing Your Workplace

Picking Your Plants: The Art of Hiring Right

Get more out of Growing Great Employees

Not Too Deep and Not Too Shallow: The Art of Onboarding

The Gardener's Mind: Developing a Coaching Mindset

See every word as you hear it

A Mixed Bouquet: Understanding Different Work Styles

Staking and Weeding: Feedback and Agreements

Get more out of Growing Great Employees

Letting It Spread: The Art of Delegation

Some Plants Don't Make It: When Termination is Necessary

See every word as you hear it

The Master Gardener: Pursuing Excellence in Management

You made it to the end of Growing Great Employees

Users also liked

Part of a Learning Plan

Capacitación inicial para personal nuevo

Discover more

Overview of Growing Great Employees