So many companies seem to have fallen victim to Corporate Anorexia (CA): blindly cutting resources to the bone with the noble aim of increasing efficiency at the organization. Most of us have firsthand experience of it. Unfortunately, this often leads to lower internal and external customer satisfaction, missed opportunities due to lack of appropriate resources, and higher attrition rate triggered by anxiety and lower job satisfaction. These companies have responded with a knee-jerk reaction to the ‘evolve or die’ challenge: they cut costs by eliminating redundancies and simplifying processes. What this approach often misses is one of the key ingredients of running a successful business which is a combination of mental and organizational agility. You need people with a degree of workload and mindset flexibility who can spot weak signals early on, and as a result, are able to identify opportunities and mitigate risks. You also need a highly digitalized and more project-based organization with agile processes that is able to seize those opportunities.
It is time to adopt the growth mindset as a guiding principle and refocus the priorities of leadership-building to build a culture of personal and business growth. This requires creating a Compelling Vision and Higher Purpose for both the organization and its units. Once that’s done, what’s left to do is to walk the talk and maintain an on-going dialogue with co-workers based on two-way feedback. No less will do…
