Monthly Archives: April 2015

Figuring Out the Health of Your Organization

How healthy is your organization? … That’s a good question. Your company may be business “smart” in how it handles its finances, marketing, technology etc. but is it equally focused on maximizing the strengths, expertise and emotional intelligence of its employees?

And how can you tell that? Intuitively, people know if their organization is genuinely healthy in ways that really matter most to them. It’s actually pretty simple. Here are my favorite 5 ways to assess your own company’s health (or team). Many additional ways are described by Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business; he gives us a wealth of insights into this fascinating idea of organization health.

5 Things Easy to Observe:

  1. Relatively low employee turnover. People want to work for you!
  2. Employees genuinely speak well of you and the company out of your hearing.
  3. There is a positive energy in the air – very little drama or unproductive complaining.
  4. People show up and are engaged beyond their basic job descriptions.
  5. Leaders are involved and available at every level.

What rating would you give your own company? Your own team? Challenge yourself to improve!

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The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 2012.

This is a great book filled with powerful insights into the power of investing in your people. A coaching colleague recommended it as a “must read” and he was right. I haven’t finished it completely because there is so much there and it is that good!

Lencioni has a great style – it’s an easy read. And he backs up the common sense of investing in organization health with solid research and business examples. I found myself also thinking about various teams or work groups that I serve on – these concepts are equally valuable for smaller groups. In the rush of everyday work, are we missing out on a wealth of untapped resources in our people? Lencioni convinces me that there is a lot more out there than what we are paying attention to. Pick up the book and tell me what you think!

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