Creating a Culture of Corporate Prosperity
December 2005
Leaders in thriving companies do two things well. They set an inspiring visionary direction, and create a culture of prosperity that allows people to grow and flourish.
Prosperity includes, but is not limited to, "financial viability." Your corporate prosperity also includes people's health, quality of work relationships, opportunity for learning, clear career advancement pathways, and an experience of fulfillment from making the world a better place. If your business is exceedingly profitable and everyone is miserable and fearful, are you prosperous? If everyone is fulfilled with their work and the customers consistently "feel the love," but your staff can't earn enough income to take care of their needs, is that prosperity? Can you really have it all? It all depends on your collective leadership consciousness.
In our work with hundreds of companies, we have seen all levels of corporate prosperity consciousness - everything from abundance to scarcity. And don't think for a minute that this culture is not a reflection of the leaders' consciousness. Our external reality is a reflection of our internal connection to inner wisdom - the source of inspiration, creativity, innovation, problem solving, and passion for serving people's needs. We've learned over the years that corporate prosperity is captured by leading from five spiritual principles that directly apply to every business; and we are more than happy to share them with you for free!
Principle 1 - Gratitude: to open up our flow of receiving, we must be grateful for and take good care of what we've already been given. Are you thrilling your existing customers with what they really need and want? If so, repeat business and referrals are abundant. Do you invest time and energy thanking your employees for what they do? If so, they'll go the extra mile to take care of your customers. Are your people grateful for their own God given talent, the innovative creativity of the founders who offered them a meaningful place of employment, and the resources they have to continuously improve their products and services? If not, people are vulnerable to self importance and entitlement and their ability to contribute withers away.
Principle 2 - Offering Value: to consistently receive from the world we must first give something of real value. Does your company offer real value or are you hyping a product to meet a "hidden agenda need?" When the economy goes through a downturn, people are less vulnerable to "big cars sold through sex appeal." Is your company's offer genuinely enriching customers' lives so they wouldn't dream of going without it? Are you effectively and powerfully letting your market know how you can help them fulfill their needs? If your marketing is too focused on how your products work instead of what problems they help people with, your prospects will not be able to hear your offer through all of the marketing noise they contend with. There are many ways to subtly marginalize your own offer.
Principle 3 - Willingness to Receive: to experience prosperity we must know that we deserve it and be willing to ask for a fair return on our investment. Do you have a strong enough sense of self esteem to stand up for a reasonable return for your value? If you end up "buying customers" with discounted prices that do not allow you to take care of all of your organizational needs, you will not be able to afford a socially responsible or sustainable company. Are your people willing to "ask for the order" when prospects are "interested but hesitant"? Lots of people can't know the value of your offer until they actually experience it and need to feel the conviction of your employee. If a large contingent of your team believes they're "not salespeople" or "not involved in marketing," you'll have a tough time connecting with everyone who is in legitimate need of your company.
Principle 4 - Asceticism: prosperity involves being good stewards of our resources and being responsible for saving during booming economic times so we don't fall short during lean times. Have you consistently taken out the wasteful activity from your core business processes? Are "troubled people" allowed to do marginal jobs during peak times without feedback and mentoring on how to bring forth all of their contribution? If "no" on either of these questions, you're leaving yourself and others vulnerable to the next downturn. Asceticism in business means being really honest with yourself and others about what your company requires, so you can offer the genuine value to customers outlined above. Allowing people to waste their time and lives engaged in mediocre levels of contribution is a subtle and unconscious version of "chewing out the admin staff for allowing the limousine service to send the wrong color vehicle!" Any level of abuse - even neglect - depletes organizational vitality.
Principle 5 - Giving Back: prosperity also involves sharing our abundance with those who are less fortunate. Is your corporate giving campaign a strategically motivated marketing endeavor or a sincere attempt to help people in need? Is your corporate focus accumulating wealth at the expense of others? Do you ensure that your people can make a "middle income wage" in return for devoting their work lives to your business? These are difficult questions for leaders to face if their hearts are unaware of the real role involved in being a servant leader. But anyone who trusts enough to give freely is aware that "giving and sharing for the right reasons" is a wise investment.
Setting a strong foundation of prosperity is the most important work for your company right now. At some point our society's debts will need to be repaid. At some point new technology will challenge your company's value proposition. At some point there will be other countries with the economic power to challenge our standard of living. At some point we all ponder the meaning of life from a different perspective. Now is the time to prepare your company and your people for business excellence regardless of the circumstances. No matter what occurs in the external environment, a strong leader is prepared to thrive on the inside with a strong heart. If you are interested in learning how to "choose excellence" when it's not so easy, now is a good time to contact us at 503.632.8572 because none of us knows what challenges we will eventually need to face.