In her six years with Southern Botanical, Mackenzie Chris has been a rising star. She has gone from account manager to senior account manager and then to assistant branch manager. Now, she is in her second year as branch manager for their residential division, which earns over $6 million in annual revenue.
Chris is the company’s youngest and first female branch manager. She says it’s been an empowering and challenging experience.
“Like any branch manager, I am responsible for overseeing operations, managing the budget, ensuring quality control, and fostering a positive work environment,” she says. “Balancing these responsibilities while building up credibility in my new role requires strong organizational skills and perseverance. Having a team of branch managers beside me, supporting me as I develop my skills, has been crucial. They are an amazing group! Overall, being the first female branch manager at Southern Botanical is an opportunity to make a positive impact, not only within the company but also in the broader industry.”
As branch manager, Chris conducts pulse checks to see how the team is performing, determines where to focus her time and monitors team members’ morale.
“My favorite part of the job is when I get out into the field,” Chris says. “It’s an opportunity for me to work alongside the crews to build that trust from the bottom up. No matter what occurs in the office, we would be nowhere without the crews in the field. It’s important to stay connected to all facets of what makes your team successful.”
Like many others in the industry, her greatest challenge has been hiring and retaining top talent. She says the main reason employees leave companies is due to a lack of clarity on their long-term plans. Southern Botanical has developed career paths for their employees to help with this.
“It allows them to set goals with clear expectations on how to advance,” Chris says. “It’s one of the key parts of being a leader in any company. Creating a plan so that your team can grow with you. That can be through involvement in different committees, sales goals or moving to different roles. There is more than one way to grow within a company and providing those opportunities is crucial.”
Chris encourages other women to be confident in what they bring to the table when it comes to joining the industry.
“Every person, regardless of gender, has strengths and weaknesses,” Chris says. “Focus in on what you have a passion for and strive to be the best at it. You are not meant to be good at everything and that’s okay. Being smart enough to surround yourself with people who are strong in your areas of weakness is important. Success comes when you know who are, set goals and build a community around yourself to help you achieve them.”
While in college at Texas A&M, Chris was originally unsure of what she wanted to do as a career.
“My advisor recommended that I take the Intro to Horticulture class with Dr. Reed,” Chris says. “He shared his passion for horticulture with me, and now I am surrounded by people who love plants just as much as I do! Since then, I have found that landscaping is so much more than just plants. It’s about creating a space in which people will not only see the beauty but also feel it.”
After graduating in 2015 with a degree in horticulture landscape design and management, Chris worked as a commercial account manager for Precision Landscape Management. She also assisted in designing larger-scope projects for other account managers.
“It was an amazing company that took the time to invest into me straight out of college,” Chris says.
Southern Botanical’s head of HR at the time contacted Chris about an open position. While she wasn’t looking for a new job at the time, she felt there was room to challenge herself.
Chris says her favorite thing about working with Southern Botanical is that no matter what position you have within the company, you can make an impact.
“We are always looking for ways to improve not only what we do but the people we have on our team,” Chris says. “Ideas are constantly brought to the table, and then plans are created to help these dreams become reality. From building out a company-wide training program to the small things like paletas for our frontline team. There is no idea too big or too small.”
Chris says it wasn’t her goal to climb the ranks quickly at the company; it was just a result of her loving her job and being successful at it.
“I have always been a big believer in if you take care of the people around you, everything else will take care of itself,” Chris says. “Now, that’s not passive by any means. That’s hitting deadlines, having the hard conversations, stepping in to assist where you know it’s needed and even saying no to take the time to take care of what you already have on your plate. Upper management saw my drive and created the opportunity for me to grow.”
Over her career, Chris has learned not to take criticism from clients personally. She also discovered in Sandler Sales Training the difference between role and identity.
“Identity is who you are no matter what room you walk into: kind, outgoing, stubborn, etc.,” Chris says. “Then you have your role, which is what you do, depending on who is in that room: mother, account manager, neighbor, boss, etc. Separating those two changed how I took feedback from not only clients but everyone. I went from having my defenses up to listening to how I could utilize this information to grow.”
She also understands the importance of continual learning and not getting comfortable in your routine. One of her mentors, regional manager for commercial services, Shaun Murphy, always challenges her to see the bigger picture and not get caught up in the day-to-day.
Chris is passionate about promoting the industry and its rewarding career paths. She says there is such beauty and fulfillment working in the landscape industry.
“I remember when I first started off in the industry and would share my job title, I could see the spark of interest die in their eyes,” Chris says. “It was hard for me to cope with. Whenever they did allow me to share the day-to-day of what I got to do the whole conversation changed, but that was only if I was given that chance.”
She says she’d like to see the industry creating a larger impact in the communities they work in.
“This is not for any one company to do but a collective,” Chris says. “Whether that would be creating and maintaining a community garden within a food desert or donating time to low-income school districts. We can share our passion for landscaping in so many ways. We just need someone to start the movement.”
This article was published in the July/August issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Edge magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
