What is high-performance that is healthy & sustainable?
I am working with a couple of interesting organisations at the moment.
Two organisations striving…
One is a very exciting high growth technology start-up, with massive potential to become very large very quickly. The CEO is passionate about growing rapidly and working extremely hard to achieve the company's potential. She expects massive commitment from her people. She does of course have the pressure of investors to report to and whilst they’re not yet profitable, there is a need to grow fast to maximise the runway before needing the next tranche of cash.
The other organisation is a B-Corp, and an environmental product business. The founder is also very driven and is frustrated by a workforce that is not as driven as he is.
These situations are prompting me to ask many questions about High Performance and Maximising results.
Can we achieve high performance & wellbeing?
Is it possible to rapidly grow a company in a way that is truly sustainable for all those involved?
How do you achieve growth that is healthy?
The positive & negative side of growth
Growth of course has its positive side in the form of making money for shareholders, providing jobs for people, providing great services and products to customers and to the world. Our driven human nature has created a world of impressive innovation and progress… impressive at least on one level.
But as I sit here today, in a world full of crises, I am also aware of the shadow unhealthy side of this human desire for growth. I believe healthy growth should have less consequences.
Look at nature
When I look at Nature, I see growth. In the spring and in the summer there is growth, there is abundance happening naturally. But the key word here is naturally. There is no human rational mind trying to push the grass to grow faster, or to make the sun shine brighter, or the bees to make more honey. Everything is doing its work beautifully and growing naturally, organically, and intuitively.
What would it be like if a current business environment learnt the lessons from nature? Yes to growth, but let's do it organically and at a pace that is natural (whatever that means to you), and healthy or sustainable for its eco-system.
When I reflect on nature, I'm also interested in the cycles of the seasons. In winter, things have time die back or to hibernate. Yet in business everything is go, go, go, must grow, must grow fast. If we are not growing, then we are failing. Could there be more acceptance of the natural business cycles, sometimes growing fast (summer), sometimes not (the winter periods). Perhaps the winter periods could be accepted as a time to pause and to re-invent ready for the next phase of growth.
The role of the ego
Where is the human need for growth coming from anyway?
The danger is that the drive for growth is underpinned by the needs of a leader’s unhealthy ego - that is, an ego-self that needs to feel worthy, and the leader’s ego thinks that by having more money or more status and/or a larger organisation, that he/she will feel worthy.
So in these situations where the leader is affected by ego, growing a company is a compensation for their ego not feeling enough. This situation is often a result of our upbringing. We weren’t praised enough, or didn’t have enough money, so as adults we drive to have what we didn’t have in childhood, unconsciously thinking that this will ‘make us happy’.
These drivers can cause significant problems.
The solution to this problem is not what the ego thinks. The solution is not to grow a company in order to feel worthy. The solution is to do some inner work, so you can be free from the grip of your ego. That is the access to living a fulfilling and abundant life, regardless of what you do or what you have.
When you reach the stage of feeling worthy and being whole just as you are, you can live life differently and lead differently.
The new way of growing abundantly
Then if you still choose to grow a company, you do it from a different place. Growing the organisation because you’re living your purpose and doing it to be of service to the whole. Growth and fast growth can still occur, but then you become interested in healthy growth for the practical and emotional benefit of all stakeholders (including your people and the planet).
In short, I’m saying high performance and achieving amazing results is possible in this new world, but the mindset and the approach needs to be entirely different.
What is the new world?
I believe we’re entering a ‘new world’.
The new world is demanding values such as - compassion, kindness, responsibility, empowerment, purpose, holistic thinking, transparency.
So your opportunity as a leader is to work out how to maximise performance in the new world. Those that get that right will attract and retain amazing people (employees, clients and beyond) who will feel inspired to give their all for the organisation.
Do we even call it high performance?
On reflection, I don't think you should even call it high performance. It’s about finding and following a deep-rooted purpose. When you do something with purpose, you are not working anyway, you are just being and doing what you deeply love. And growing a company is then about attracting a group of people that are also deeply inspired by that purpose. And then the focus of the growth is not growth for growth sake, you don't obsessively focus on numbers, you focus mainly on fulfilling the purpose and making a colossal difference in the world.
In the new world, how do you challenge performance?
You may still struggle with people who aren’t very committed. You may struggle with some significant business challenges such as not being profitable or declining revenue.
The new world isn’t about accepting poor performance. I don’t believe it’s just about love harmony and balance.
There is a place for straight talking and for challenging performance. There is a place for giving difficult feedback. There is a place for working very hard to hit targets.
But the point is that the challenge and the hard work is coming from a different place. Straight-talking challenge that also has kindness and consideration. Leadership with integrity and inspiration. Extending trust. Treating people with compassion and treating them as adults. Being conscious of your actions and their impact.
How do you learn to lead in this new way?
To lead authentically in this new world, I think it’s primarily about doing inner work. You need to have your own realisations about how to live and how to lead. You need to have your own shifts in consciousness.
My work with leaders is about enabling these shifts to cause non-linear personal transformation - helping you shift the way that you think.
My invite is to you is to do the inner work in order to propel yourself as a leader into this new world. The opportunity is great, the personal fulfilment is even greater.
