As we enter a new year, to many it seems like “Ground-Hog Day” – A restart of the pressure points.
I know of many safety conscious organisations who, every January, redo a full safety protocol to shake off the lethargy of the holiday season. Across all staff. What many of these organisations do not do, is the executive leadership team refresh with questions like:
- What have we learnt from the prior year (as opposed to How we achieved or did not achieve our financial goals)?
- How are we going to think this organisation into the next level? Create a strategy and obtain buy in to succeed.
- Are we leaders as opposed to Managers?
- Very importantly: Do we have the time and ability to innovate our business models, or are we continually stuck in the same issues? Can we become a team of innovative leaders?
- Are we ensuring that the focus of Financial achievement is not placed above that of the Human Capital improvement? That they are not mutually exclusive?
- How have we managed to retain the critical staff and mentor those with promise. Have we truly strengthened our Human Capital?
Many I have spoken to are finding organisations are pushing more onto a decreasing workforce, and those (who are usually stars), are buckling under the organizational need to outperform prior years but at the same time reducing the human assets – which then starts to reduce the ability of these assets to innovate and create additional value.
I would like any organisation to look seriously at rejuvenation, innovation and realignment every year as a minimum to ensure every year is not started as a Ground Hog Day and that the initiatives that are started grow and change with consistent high level simple feedback to ensure nothing gets lost in the wheels of the machine they are trying to lead but that every day, week and month re-purposes the leaders, re-energizes them and creates a downward vortex to all the organizational stakeholders.
Nothing is going to be a fairy tale, and challenges and crisis are inevitable – but celebrate the ingenuity and feeling of purpose that makes these nothing but challenges to be tackled and overcome and celebrate the euphoria of each year of survival and achievement.
As organizational Leaders: Give yourselves the space to enjoy where you are as you journey with the great responsibility and accountability. But to do so, you need to acknowledge vulnerability, embrace the ability to bring in chosen help and create the environment to innovate, create and relearn to love what you do for yourself, the organisation and all those affected by its purpose – live life in a wholeness which includes you. You are a catalyst to so much change, but you need to be able to be you.
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