Is Your Company Healthy? 3 Ways to Bring Clarity to Your Business
“Healthy companies are far less susceptible to ordinary problems than unhealthy ones.”
I started a new book this week entitled, “The Four Obsessions of an Ordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable.” Author Patrick Lencioni’s focus is on a leader’s crucial role in building a healthy organization – an often overlooked but essential element of business life that is the linchpin of sustained success. I think Lencioni absolutely gets it right as he helps his readers understand the disarming simplicity and power of creating a healthy organization. That’s why his words at the opening of this newsletter are so intentionally simple, yet powerful.
“Healthy companies eliminate politics and confusion and they operate with humility and efficiency.”
I just love the four components of his message here. Though Lencioni may not be giving us a direct solution to chaos, he certainly highlights some things to focus on to bring clarity to our lives. I believe the solution to chaos is clarity – and I believe this so deeply, I wrote an entire book about it. A steady leader brings clarity to their business. I would even go so far as to say that focusing on delivering clarity is an obsession of steady leaders because they understand that clarity strengthens the health of their organization. Keeping in mind Lencioni’s comment about healthy companies, here are three ways you can bring clarity to your business and life.
Eliminate confusion in your company by planning for what could go wrong. This starts with evaluating your situation. Consider: what environmental factors can affect your business – both internally and externally? What friendly (company) assets can you leverage? What assets are at the disposal of your competition? What is your strongest competitor’s most likely course of action? What is their most dangerous course of action? When you intentionally and critically consider your situation in this way, before you even start to form a plan, you will stay ahead of so many potentially big problems. And maybe, if you spend enough time and thought on it, you will amass an arsenal of solutions that prepare you to handle potential ordinary problems as well.
Eliminate politics by implementing extreme accountability complemented by grace. By “extreme accountability,” I mean that you highlight and address anything going awry immediately. Don’t sit on something that feels funky or not in alignment with your company values or culture. Demonstrate that you have actually put in the effort outlined in #1 by sharing any concerns for potential pitfalls or failures before it is too late. Give your people an opportunity to adjust their plan or tell you why they are intentionally moving in a certain direction. When you call things out early and with clarity, you will operate much more efficiently as an organization. However, you can’t just be a company of extreme accountability without also sharing grace. Grace is the one component of our human capacity that covers judgement and the prideful nature inherent in all human beings. Grace is loving your people – and communicating in a way that allows them to feel your love. When you raise a concern with efficiency in mind, and then wrap the delivery of those concerns in grace, true efficiency and improved performance will result. And then every ordinary problem that could turn into a major problem will always be solved just as an ordinary problem. Keep small problems small problems. That’s really what you are after.
Remain humble as you push for action. Massive action is what ultimately brings results. However, massive action will inevitably create a mess of things. You need a healthy dose of humility as you pursue that massive action. To me, humility is a willingness to admit you are not perfect. You are going to make mistakes. If you operate with humility, you have permission to be fallible, to make mistakes every now and then. You can make a mistake, acknowledge that, learn something, improve, and move forward. We have something to learn from everyone around us – even those brand-new employees fresh out of college. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Excellence is your best.
Written by Schuyler Williamson
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God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson