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Leadership



HOW HEALTHY IS YOUR ORGANIZATION?

Patrick Lencioni is our hero....seriously.
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trunps Everything Else in Business has been our leadership bible this fall. Our Leadership Team was given a copy to memorize. (just kidding) There is so much good stuff in this book--you need to get your own copy.

Is your organization smart or healthy?

Smart organizations are good at the classic fundamentals of business--strategy, marketing, finance and technology. Lencioni defines these as decision sciences. Critical to success but only half the equation. Healthy organizations have minimum politics and confusion, high degrees of morale and productivity, and very low turnover among employees.

Most leaders prefer to stay within their comfort level range. We work and live in a predictable data-driven world which measures objectives and outcomes. Healthy organizations understand that leadership is messy.  Leaders try to avoid the subjective conversation because it can become emotional and awkward. 
Be awkward. Try something new at the office or with people you love.  Awkward is a sure sign of health because you are venturing into messy unchartered territory. Here's a Lencioni truth: healthy organizations get smarter over time.  Healthy participants learn from one another, identify critical issues and recover faster from mistakes.

So, is your organization smart or healthy?
 
The key ingredient for improvement and success is not access to knowledge or resources. It's really about the health of your organization. Consider this: if you had to bet on the future of two kids, one raised by loving parents in a solid home and the other a product of apathy and dysfunction, you'd choose the first regarless of their resources. The same goes for organizations.
 

1.  Imagine your healthy organization. You no longer allow dysfunction, ego or politics to get in the way of your success.
2.  Define the enemy to your success and know it. For many of us, our enemy is arrogance. Mistakes happen and the true test of organizational health is how quickly you deal with it.
3.  Organizational health is a multiplier of intellegence. The healthier you are, the more intelligence is available at your finger tips.
4. The financial cost of having an unhealthy organization is undeniable: wasted resources & time, decreased productivity, increased employee turnover and customer/client attrition.

The bigger question: can you afford to be an unhealthy organization much longer?