Growth for the sake of growth is not a worthy goal. But growth matters, and I’ll share some reasons why with you.
If a tree isn’t growing, something is wrong; it could be the soil conditions, nutrition, disease, improper planting or something else. If you’re an arborist, you’re going to evaluate both the tree and the site and then make needed corrections. If you’re a leader and your business isn’t growing, you should be evaluating it in a similar manner, because lack of growth points to a problem with organizational health and vigor.
Healthy businesses will grow naturally as a result of the right environmental conditions:
- Culture, which is like the fertile soil upon which a business grows and attracts capable people to cultivate it;
- Information, which feeds effective and timely business decision-making;
- Capital, which, like fertilizer, fuels growth;
- Products and Services, which, like photosynthesis, provide healthy exchanges in the market; and
- Right Place, Right Time, which assures that your strategy is aligned with market needs.
Of course, there are other intangible factors at work, along with the influence of external factors beyond the leader’s control. By controlling and balancing the factors within their control, however, leaders optimize their organization’s potential for growth.
There’s another benefit to growth, which is often overlooked. Talented people will join a business for a job, but they will stay for opportunity. Growth creates opportunity!
Growth also challenges ways of thinking and doing. That’s healthy for avoiding “successful complacency,” which can be a silent killer of a business.
Leaders understand why growth is not an objective or a goal, in and of itself. Growth is an outcome of leading well. Enjoy the journey!
Photo: iStock.com/RomoloTavani
