How do you assess the strength of a business? By studying the financials, such as cash flow, income statements, balance sheet, stock price, and so on?
Certainly, these are crucial metrics, but we need to recognise the difference between cause and effect, says Price Pritchett in ‘Deep Strengths: Getting to the heart of high performance’ (www.tatamcgrawhill.com). “The numbers are best seen as effects. Good financials are results brought about by something else.”
Dive deep to find the hidden forces that are actually driving performance, the inner domain where performance truly begins, urges Pritchett. It’s the corporate psyche, the collective consciousness of an organisation, the mental and emotional state that’s at the very root of people’s behaviour, he explains.
“What goes on in this all-important mind space shapes what an individual does and then, collectively, how the organisation as a whole ultimately performs. Results – whether they turn out to be good, bad, or ugly – are born and raised here.”
Among the ‘emotional assets’ or ‘deep strengths’ of organisations that the author lists are positive attributes such as: Resilience (the ability to take problems in stride, to bounce back quickly from difficulties or defeat); confidence (belief in the organisation’s ability to perform effectively); energy level (‘corporate metabolism’, vitality, the capacity to do work); creativity and innovation; can-do attitude; happiness (upbeat mental state, sense of well-being); competitive spirit (playing to win, pushing to improve); and staying power (emotional stamina).
Traditionally, deep strengths don’t get measured at all, observes Pritchett. He also finds it rare that organisations or individuals engage in meaningful efforts aimed at developing these strengths, because of the general preoccupation with results and effects.
“The secret to improvement lies in causes. We need to focus on the hidden drivers of performance if we want to muscle up results. The way to bring out the best in ourselves and our organisations is to develop our deep strengths.”
A new leadership priority, according to the author, is to build the psychological balance sheet, by nudging people’s thoughts and feelings increasingly in a positive direction. This is especially relevant, he argues, because today’s knowledge work is 90 per cent cognitive, that is, mental and emotional, while a mere 10 per cent is physical.
“The mind is now the main productivity tool. Thinking has become the key competence. People’s thought processes are the major source of wealth creation,” Pritchett avers. “‘What’s going on in people’s heads’ deserves serious attention because the organisation’s key assets reside inside the skulls of its workforce.”
Cost of unhappiness
A section titled ‘the cost of unhappiness’ opens by stating that even if happiness doesn’t help drive your organisation’s top line, a lack of it certainly can damage its bottom line.
Alarmingly, “Happiness is essentially the opposite of depression, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently declared to be the world’s fourth most debilitating condition, behind heart disease, cancer, and traffic accidents.” And, quite unnervingly, ‘people today are 10 times as likely to suffer from depression as those born two generations ago.’
Humour can come handy in spreading positive vibes around. “Laughing represents the shortest distance between two people because it instantly interlocks limbic systems,” reads a quote of Dr Daniel Goleman cited in the book.
Most effective leaders get people laughing two to three times more often than average executives do, the author notes. “These leaders who are most skilled at displaying humour rank in the top one-third of bonuses, and are rated ‘excellent’ by 90 per cent of their peers and bosses.”
Lest you fret that you aren’t a comedian with a knack of telling jokes, Pritchett cheers up by saying that most of the time humour comes out of friendly banter, amusing observations about the situation at hand, or maybe from poking a little fun at oneself.
Recommended for a deep study.
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