Is it more important to be smart, healthy or both

Have you watched Chasing the Sun 2 yet? Or maybe a better question is “How many times have you watched it?” I’ve watched each of the episodes at least four times, some of them even more.

In the six months following the Springboks’ 2023 Rugby World Cup success, watching the series documenting the event and listening to numerous interviews with the players, coaches and support staff involved in the endeavour, I’ve again realised that this Springbok Team can teach us a lot about what it takes to create a successful team, business or organisation. So we’ve decided to combine our observations of the team from the outside with our knowledge of Organisational Health and Employee Experience to clarify and make practical what we believe they are getting right – so that you can start or continue implementing these principles where you live and work.

The plan is to do a series of articles using the Boks as a case study (they are a good one!) – so if that is something that interests you, welcome to part one of The Bok Way.

As an organisation, team or individual is it more important to be healthy, smart, neither or both? On an individual level the obvious answer is “Both!” and you would be right. The funny thing is that most organisations prioritise being smart above being healthy.

Let me explain:

This distinction was first drawn by Patrick Lencioni, who describes the “Smart” part of a business as focusing on the strategy, products, marketing, finance, technology and systems. These components are all massively important and you could easily think to yourself: “If we could get those right it would guarantee our success”. But, you would be wrong. The success of your organisation is drastically limited if it is not also healthy – with a healthy organisation being characterised by minimal politics and confusion, high morale and productivity, low staff turnover and an underlying foundation of trust.

Looking at the 2018-2023 Springbok team, it is clear that the leaders place just as much emphasis on being smart as they do on being healthy. This is a step forward from teams of the past, who have regularly been characterised by (especially European) observers as the opposite of smart: big, dumb and outdated. Coaches would then react to these accusations by trying to play in a way that does not suit our players at all, making the Springboks even more un-smart!

But, as a business, you cannot just focus on being healthy either. If you are not providing a product or service that people need or are implementing strategies, technologies and systems that don’t meet your needs, that inevitably leads to organisational death. That is why, as a leader, you need to be paying attention to both! It’s not only about the ability of your people, the game plan or strategy, innovating, adapting, clever tactics and playing to your strengths. It is also about building a healthy, growth-oriented, challenging and welcoming culture. Like driving a beautiful supercar to its limits, without oil in the engine, it will only go so far.

The best teams, businesses and organisations are healthy and smart. These are also the most successful by any objective measures you care to use: they win more often, attract the best people, have the most loyal employees, customers or members, have the deepest impact, and make the most money. And win the most World Cups.

In the next number of weeks, we will be unpacking these principles in more detail using the world champion Springboks as our case study. The aim is to lift out the principles that you can apply in your environment to enhance both the smarts and health of where you are. In the meantime, start thinking about where your emphasis as a leader has been in this year: are you prioritising being smart, healthy or both?

At PurposeWorks, we help teams and organisations become healthier and smarter. If you need help with this, get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.