In Like a Lamb

March 4, 2024

True or false?  “They’re simply not making enough high quality leaders nowadays… they don’t exist.”  (A colleague back in 2020)

• You will need at least four hours — and a coupla bathroom breaks.
  • Fix a tray of schnacks and then make a focused and serious plan to watch the epic, Killers of the Flower Moon.
  • You will find yourself reflecting upon ten different things in ten different ways.
• Thank you for your support, inquiries, and expressions of concern regarding last week’s news about lower back and extremities pain.
  • Turns out the paralyzing pain has a name:  “Severe spinal stenosis at L3-L4-L5.”  (Dr. TF, MD)
  • And so, we will embark on this new journey; the prognosis is good, the projected wait time for insurance approval, intolerable and torturous.
  • This is a very humbling experience, and yet we will try to learn from it  — the plan is to have no interruption in client service, none.  Thank you!
• And now, look at this, coincidence or just good timing?
  • Today’s feature is organizational health.
    • “Organizational health refers to how effectively leaders run the place — that is, how they make decisions, allocate resources, operate day-to-day, and lead their teams with the goal of delivering high performance, both near-term and long-term.
    • Organizational health comprises three elements:
      • How well the entire organization rallies around a common (shared) vision…
      • How well the organization executes its strategic imperatives…
      • And, how well the organization innovates and renews itself over time.”  (Camp, Gast, Etc., et al., 2024)
  • “There is no one right path to sustained success… healthier organizations perform better than unhealthy ones, especially in times of uncertainty.”
  • “Organizational health is the strongest predictor of value creation and a critical factor in sustained competitive advantage.”  (Ibid.)
  • “Leadership is undergoing a generational transformation.”
  • “Decisive leadership reflects leaders’ quick decisions and their commitment to act on them — as opposed to the old authoritative model.”  (Ibid.)
  • Data are the fuel for everyday innovation.
    • No longer only a process for bringing the next big idea to life…
    • Companies are more likely to succeed with innovation if big bang ideas are supported by data-driven insights and supplemented with smaller and more frequent ideas…
    • For example:  the changes to Major League Baseball, driven by multiple and myriad data, are perceived by most as a win/ win/ win.
  • “Employees who experience more mobility at work; i.e., role changes, are 27% less likely to report feeling burned out…
    • …47% less likely to report intentions to leave the organization…
    • … anb 2.3 times more likely to recommend their organization to others.”  (Ibid.)
  • Getting and staying healthy —  so-called, Power Practices:
  1. Strategic clarity — Healthy organizations effectively translate vision and strategy into actionable and measurable objectives that are clearly articulated and shared with employees at all levels.
  2. Role Clarity — Healthy organizations tend to have structures, processes, and working norms that speed up decision making, remove layers of bureaucracy, and make it easy for employees to get things done — even when situations are new or ambiguous.
  3. Personal ownership — Healthy organizations hire and develop managers who have a deep sense of personal ownership for their work and who foster that same sense of ownership in their teams and employees.
  4. Competitive insights — Healthy organizations tend to have a clear view of where and how they fit into the competitive landscape and of their value propositions; they use these insights to set strategic imperatives, make decisions, and allocate resources.
• So, what’s the hold-up?
  1. 1. Inconsistency of top leadership; e.g., leaders should ask, “How do I run the place each and every day, in each and every meeting, in ways that are both healthy and conducive to high performance?”
     2. Leaders might not see the trees for the forest; many see health as essential but don’t get involved in the implementation at middle and lower levels of the organization.
     3. And finally, it’s that old culprit, Hubris.
  2. • Poor organizational health inevitably points back to the leader, which is uncomfortable and embarrassing — and the leader doesn’t want to be associated with poor health, and so the leader avoids it or obfuscates rather than addressing it head-on and in a transparent way.  (Ibid.)
       • And, Without A Vision’s commandment?  Most leaders wait until it’s too late to ask for help.
       • Ask for help, people, ask for it.  It is empowering.
• One final thought:  Whether you out-source your marketing function or staff it internally, involve your marketing team in C-level discussions and decisions.
  • It’s a hyuuuge mistake not to.
  • It’s not marketing’s job to clean up the mess made by poor leadership; involve these key people from the beginning.
• “Of course they’re developing artificial intelligence; they’re not using the brains I gave ’em!”  (God/ Darkow, 2024)