We are in a season of business volatility, do I have time to worry about healthy organizational culture?

**This is the second in a two part series.  Click here to read the first post.***

Intelligence and knowledge are so common these days that we can’t trade on just those anymore.  Emotional intelligence, applied to corporate culture design is the factor that sets you apart and is the key to longevity.  In part one of this series, we defined business smarts as the usual trifecta: strategy, marketing and finance.  ‘Smarts’ gets you in the door.  Let us not minimize that.  However, you need emotional intelligence to work the room.  Here’s the cool thing: learning requires clarity and interest so organizations that focus on health automatically get smarter.  Whaat?!  Think about the airline in part one’s story.  Their company has the smarts but smarter does not automatically lead to healthier since we are typically relying on expertise rather than creativity and relationships.  It’s like a bank safe full of cash (smarts).  Organizational health is the combination to access the safe.

Organizational health is an integrated and intentional approach to the things we already know matter, but usually attend to in isolation: team building, strategic planning, productive meetings.  Reflect on my airline fiasco story from part one.  Can you fathom the losses leaking from the bottom line daily?  (Every member of our group ended up with a $500 flight credit.  A credit I was loathe to use as I NEVER wanted to sit on one of their planes ever again).  Organizational health is ridiculously expensive to ignore!  More importantly, the physical, emotional and mental toll on you when you work in an unhealthy culture is far too high a price to pay for short term gains.

The corporate landscape has shifted dramatically in the past few years.  Obsession with bottom line maximization at any cost, rooted in runaway greed and/or perceived scarcity has infiltrated the business world from billion dollar corporations to small businesses.  Add to that, the unknowns of AI integration and we are facing years of turbulent adjustment and transition.  Owners and C-suite members face a choice: short term gains or long term sustainability.  Run with the strategies of the moment and grab every dollar you can because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed or slow down, prioritize sustainability and outlast the chaos.  BOTH smarts and emotional intelligence are key to survival in the long term.  Strategy, marketing and finance define your business’ ability to live to fight another day.  Emotional intelligence gives you an asset that transcends every trend and fad.  It prioritizes human resource – the key component of longevity.  After all, without humans, we have no customers and customers will crave and prioritize human connection more and more as we fall deeper into the black hole of technology.  If you want to be one of those still standing when the industry house of cards topples, tending to organizational health is your secret weapon.

As a counselor dedicated to holistic health – this is the factor that drives my passion for helping businesses design a healthy culture.  Combine that with my 15 years in the corporate world in various positions of leadership, several years of higher education leadership plus years as a successful business owner and you have a uniquely qualified individual who understands both the business and psychological components of organizational culture.  The fact that healthy organizations are more likely to increase productivity and profit is a nice bonus that pays the bills for all of us 🙂

To learn more about organizational health – check out this great resource: