A business either lives in harmony or it lives in dissonance. There is no middle ground. Some businesses have embraced disharmony as a way of life and continue to function at a level of normalcy inside chaotic bubbles. Complacency with discord, is their comfort state.
On the other hand, those businesses that normalize harmony and embrace constructive disruption run enviable races. They are obsessive about doing things well and reject roads that do not lead to greatness. They are committed to upholding values that deter cultural toxicity, prevent burnout, avoid wellness poverty and irregular HR practices. With such an enviable modus operandi on the inside, customer happiness has no choice but to flourish on the outside.
When this internal alignment is absent, congruence struggles to gain traction. The ensuing fractures show up in fragmented cultures and operations sliding between efficient and mediocre. Silos begin to override healthy cross-departmental functioning, a move that sabotages and disrupts every customer journey. The business degenerates into a war with itself. This does not end well. The performance of the business becomes uneven and unpredictable. Leaders become so preoccupied with outing fires, that instead of driving progress, decision making becomes paralyzed and stalls strategic momentum.
The way up and out of this morass, is to institutionalize excellence. Imbedding excellence co-ordinates into every, every idea, every process, leaves no room for arbitrary operations. Without this intervention, arbitrariness and fire-fighting will become the default operating system. When CEOs enforce excellence as a non-negotiable value, business congruence becomes a deliberate act.
The big question facing CEOs is, “Are you prepared to lead this crusade to business greatness?” The answer should not be a half-hearted nod of the head, in the affirmative. The answer has to be a resoundingly clear statement that signals mission concurrence. There is no room for timidity or anxiety, around setting such an audacious goal.
The businesses that thrive are unbothered by lofty intentions. They are led by leaders who are fuelled by the power of possibility. This is the focus that activates “living” values, connected employee communities, green internal climates, happy customers and commercial growth that never compromises reputational excellence.
When a culture of excellence and evolution becomes normalized, a sense of mission emerges. The vibrational level of a business elevates and vibrancy pervades the air. Continuous improvement makes a comeback and displaces the need for deployment of radical change management initiatives.
For a business that is in harmony with itself, growth becomes sustainable. Harmony provides a business with the strategic advantage to run an enviable race, without being sabotaged by calamity. CEOs who choose to create businesses that function in a state of harmony, are not making a choice for idealism. They are choosing to use internal alignment as the foundation for leveraging commercial advantage.
These are the CEOs who have decided to arrest dissonance, to institutionalize excellence and to cause their businesses to run enviable races.
When a business is fully invested in securing internal harmony as a strategic mission, it is destined to run an enviable race.
