For businesses today, striving for continuous effectiveness and innovation (of business ways and not only product innovation)is no longer an option – survival requires it. But in order to thrive in today’s economy, businesses must move beyond effectiveness and innovation alone, to significance which includes delivering impact to all its stakeholders. This made us question – What is the key challenge that leadership today faces in order to survive first, and then thrive? 

The only answer we had is: The leadership challenge is to enable and inspire people to first help people understand themselves as an individual, buy-by-heart this vision then align by choice with the leader’s vision of the business and contribute their talent and care to accomplish the organisation’s goals in an effective and efficient way. The challenge here is to inspire people on a daily basis to align and stay align to the priorities of the organisation and deliver results without being asked for. To overcome this challenge, leader ship first needs to what we call the business philosophy – a shared vision and a common value system. If the organisation would lack its philosophy, there will be first battle of opinions, cross intelligence, battle of wits and even serious conflicts between employees, low performance, lack of trust and random decision making. This leads to leadership being occupied in managing these fire-fighting issues instead of focusing on the strategic aspect of the business.

In most of our interactions with business owners, a common complaint is that despite us telling our people what to do, things do not happen or happen for a while. Our question is – why do people need to be told as to what to do? What makes them wait for orders and not act as per the goal of the business.

If you are facing a similar problem in your business, ask your people to rate on the 6 drivers that enable efficiency

Driver #1: Clarity

Clarity of where the organisation is moving and what are its goals.

Driver #2: Commitment

Is the commitment towards earning money or the goal of the company?

Driver #3: Communication

How clearly and effectively are people in the company communicating?

Driver #4: Accountability

Is everyone aware of their role?

Driver #5: Structure and systems

Are your business processes in place to help people leverage their full potential?

Driver #6: Willingness

Are people ready to give their best for the collective future of them and the company?

The answers would help you answer as to what needs to be done to enable efficiency in your organisation. If you further think the need to explore the above, you can always connect with experts for help.