November 12th – Any business owner should spend a dedicated portion of their week worrying. Worrying about what? Currently, the list includes wages, COVID, the supply chain, whether employees have an opportunity for advancement, if we have enough staff…essentially, everything. This year my worries have also been about what are we missing.
We have a great team in Nick, David, and Sarah, who are all moving up and will eventually become partners. Sometimes I worry we may not be giving them enough support as they grow in their responsibilities, because we are too busy with the day-to-day. Sarah has assembled a great vit team who need support and encouragement to advance their careers. But I worry we may lose them if we don’t give them both opportunities and support. Several of our site managers are taking English classes after hours to improve their communication skills. What are we doing for them?
Another worry of mine is that we become complacent. Basically, what if we start to believe the emails? Clients are consistently sending us positive feedback on our work, which is great — but what if we begin to believe all of this, and stop striving to be better? I also worry Silverado may not be the great place to work that we think it is. We always need to make sure we can answer the question: Did we ask the entry level employees what they needed?
To help manage these worries, we have created a new position effective in January 2022, known as the Director of Company Culture and Strategic Development.
Filling this role will be…
Many of you know Mary Maher as a long-time vineyard manager in the Napa Valley. Her arrival in the Valley predates my own by a few years. Most recently (and for the past 20 years), she has been the Vineyard Manager for Harlan Estate.
In this newly created role, Mary will be working with Silverado Employees on best practices to deliver a high level of service to our customers and help develop the skills needed to push our vineyards to extraordinary levels. She will also be on the lookout for team members who show potential and need encouragement to advance in our organization. Mary will become very involved in how we interact with our community, by leading an employee group who will decide where our One Percent donations are given each year.
My 2 a.m. fear is that we stay satisfied with what we did in the past and call it “good enough.” With Mary’s addition to our leadership team, we will have an opportunity to challenge our beliefs on what makes a good company great. Trust me, we have a long way to go. If you have a moment, please welcome Mary to our group, and feel free to reach out to me if you should have questions. Her official start date is January 10, 2022.
