
Recently I was involved in an event that brought up the concept of health to a meaningful discussion. Organizational health, much like personal health is a matter of increments; our organizations get better because we work on them, a step at a time, or sometimes we wake up and find that our organizations are unhealthy and we've let them deteriorate, again step by step.
In a discussion I had with a new client about the health of his company I suggested that the state of the organization might be gauged by the beliefs of the key staffers and the quality of the conversations among those same people. If we can, as leaders, purposefully and respectfully influence the conversations we have with our co-workers, we can affect their beliefs and consequently, the health of our companies.
In fact, I think that the more frequently we have directed conversation with our team, the more likely we are to understand two key issues: A) what our key team members are thinking, especially about what our organization is about, and how we are to collaborate to function in behalf of our clients and b) whether their thoughts(and therefore their actions) are likely to be in line with your company Mission and Values, even when unsupervised. Organizational health is about more than just the bank account. As leaders we have to insure that the fuel that drives our organizations...people's beliefs and their subsequent actions...is recognized, nurtured, aligned and ultimately rewarded.
Health, good or bad, is managed incrementally and good health in organizations is the purposeful application of ideas and actions that promote values like respect, trust, confidentiality, reliance etc.
What are your organizational values? Do you purposefully promote those values through conversations with your key team members?
No comments:
Post a Comment