THE CRITICAL AREAS OF ‘ORGAN’IZATIONAL HEALTH
We all have a responsibility – and vested interest – to help make our organization, teams and departments as healthy as possible.
Being part of the same ‘organ,’ we all benefit and we all suffer whether we like it or not. Work stress is real and it comes home with us if we don’t manage it well. On the positive side, so do work rewards!
Regardless of where you work, the state of your organization’s health, good or bad, impacts everyone involved.
So why not become as pro-active as you can, about creating as healthy of an ‘organ‘ization as possible? There are 5 areas where you can start to dive in. Initially, begin with your circle of influence and branch out from there.
For the sake of brevity, we’ll only ‘dabble’ in each area and get your ‘juices’ flowing. The task is simple, identify the biggest ‘pain point’ for you, today, and make firm a decision to get it to a healthier state. Your and your company’s health depends on it.
The Critical Areas Organizational Health
- Health at the ’60,000 foot’ Company level:
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- Do you know why your company exists? o What is your company’s purpose?
- o How do they “keep the lights on?
- o What are the primary products and services and are they still relevant?
- What is the company culture? Is it healthy?
Company health areas are the most critical because employment literally stops or starts by being able to pay bills and generate profit. Regardless of your level, being cognizant of how you impact ‘bottom line’ and company mission and vision is very important. For starters, make sure what you do aligns with what your company does!
- Functional/Departmental Health
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- Do you know what your company considers to be the MOST important contribution of your function? Knowing where your function should focus/not focus is critical to ‘department health’ and contribution.
- What is your department’s core competency? How well is it delivering on its’ core competency?
Importantly, company inter-dependencies need to be seamless, supportive of one another and moving in the same direction. Mis-aligned priorities cause conflicts and ‘bottle-necks’ and clog the system!
- Stakeholder health: Stakeholders are any individuals/groups outside of your team who depend on you to deliver a product or service to them.
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- Who are your key internal stakeholders within the company and are they ‘happy’ with your service?
- Who are your key stakeholders outside of your company and are they ‘happy’ with your service?
- When was the last time you sought stakeholder feedback?
Your stakeholders can literally ‘make or break you.’ Keep ‘stakeholder health’ by keeping them happy!
- Team Health:
Whether or not you are the leader of the team or a member of the team, what are you doing to take care of your team?
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- What does your team need from you to be healthy?
- What does your team need from you to feel empowered?
- What does your team need from you to feel supported
- What does your team need from you to feel valued?
YOUR ‘Work’ Health
What are you doing to take care of yourself personally at work?
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- What are you doing to take care of yourself professionally?
- Are you investing in yourself professionally, pushing your area of expertise, keeping up with the times?
- We are in a world of constant and rapid change, how are you doing at changing and upping your game?
- Are you growing as a leader?
To be clear, everyone is a leader, even those without any reports. We all have areas and responsibilities that we must own and by default lead. And we all must exude leadership skills when we interact with others.
While the areas seem simple enough, making sure each area stays healthy is not. Like the colors of a rainbow, the complexities and intricacies involved are limitless. The key lies in asking and answering the questions above, assessing them honestly and taking action on where you need to improve.
Your Leadership Challenge:
Assess each “health” area for yourself. Identify your low areas and create a simple plan to start tackling it now. Your health – and your organization’s health – depends on it!
