Would you rather be smart or healthy?

Thank you for joining again this week, we really do appreciate it.

So how about it, would you rather be smart or healthy? It is a trick question, because obviously you want to be (and can be) both. Most people tell you they want to be both. Most businesses too. But more often than not, in business particularly, we see companies overemphasizing the importance of being smart while not paying enough attention to their health.

Let me explain by the use of a clichéd saying you’ve probably heard a thousand times before (we don’t particularly like cliches, in fact they’re pretty irritating, but more often than not they are true). Peter Drucker famously said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” And believe it or not, he’s right.

Think about this on a personal level – when you’re sick it doesn’t really matter if you have an IQ of 160. Most things are going to be pretty difficult and you’re not going to be in the mood to perform at your best. Your smarts don’t have a chance to shine.

In organisations there is a lot of emphasis on being smart in the form of having the best strategy, product, marketing, technology, etc. You know, all the clever stuff. But often the health of the organisation becomes an afterthought. Aspects such as the culture, trust, belonging, morale and engagement don’t feature in as many discussions as they should. This is exactly what Drucker was on about: a healthy organisation ALWAYS has an advantage over a smart company, when the smart company are sick. We’ve seen this more times than we can count and you have as well. The symptoms to look out for would be internal politics, confusion, low morale and productivity, and high staff turnover.

The world of sport always provides useful comparisons and anybody that knows me knows I like a good sporting analogy (probably a bit too much).

This past weekend the Springboks beat the Wallabies in Australia for the first time in 9 years. The previous weekend in Adelaide we played the exact same Aussie team and lost poorly. The two matches were chalk and cheese in terms of performance and outcome. So what changed? Yes the Springbok team was slightly different, but that wasn’t the main difference. The smart things were the same: the same game plan, patterns, plays – none of that changed. The main difference was in attitude, guts, commitment and enthusiasm. The “soft” things that reside more in the domain of health. That, to my mind, made the biggest difference between the team being mediocre one week and world class the next.

The same is true for your organisation. Yes you need to pay attention to the smart things, but you will never achieve the levels of success you want when the health of your organisation is poor. This is true for your team, business unit or company – whatever your level of involvement. If you have a suspicion that the health of your group, team or company is not what it can be, get in touch. We would love to help you take a closer look at improving your organization’s health.

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.