We see that some companies have a great energy within them and they see improvements on a regular basis. These Companies continually grow and rediscover themselves. I call them ‘Happening Companies’. While ‘Happening companies’ is a small percentage, most of the Companies struggle to develop this internal ‘Positive Energy’ that helps the Company to keep improving and keep rediscovering itself.
The ‘Happening Companies’ may be growing aggressively. But, all companies growing aggressively are NOT ‘Happening Companies’. The Growth may come due to other reasons too.
The ‘Happening Companies’ attract a lot of Talent for right reasons. The ‘Happenings’ make a good story for the Good Talent to come to this company.
The Customers of the ‘Happening Companies’ would be able to see a high energy in engaging with them.
The Suppliers of the ‘Happening Companies’ will be continuously pushed to Improve. But, these Suppliers would enjoy this pushing and for many of them the association with these ‘Happening Companies’ would give them life time learnings.
The ‘Happening Companies’ would hit the maximum profitability of their life time during this phase.
The status of ‘Happening Companies’ may not be a permanent one. A Company may reach this stage and it may slip from it too.
How do Organizations develop a ‘Positive Energy’ to Improve themselves continually?
This requires a combination of factors.
01. Growth orientation and Fire in the belly at Leadership level:The Leadership in the ‘Happening Companies’ would be highly Growth oriented. They believe that they can achieve a lot and keep pushing for improvements on a continuous basis. They would be having a restlessness in them and some people may call it as having ‘fire in the belly’. The Leaders would be able to transmit this fire to others in the organization.
02. Clear Goals for the Organization at all levels:The Employees at all levels would be having ‘CLEAR Goals’. There would be a certain purposefulness in the company. Everyone in the company would be walking around with a clear purpose. The connectivity between their goals and their actions would be very clear. As they are able to see results from their actions, they are continuously in a highly motivated status.
03. Freedom to the Important Players in the organization to create:No company was built or improved by one person. There would be a team of Senior people who would be working in a motivated manner. They would be having freedom to create in the ‘Happening Company’. The team would be working as a team and producing consistent results. The Leadership would be motivated to give more Freedom as they are able to see great results!!
04. Passion towards work: The BEST out of Human beings cannot come out unless they touch their emotions. In a ‘Happening Company’, the Employees would be involved in the work with Positive emotions. They take pride in working in the company. They do not mind going the extra mile for the company. This is the biggest factor in making a Company ‘Happening’. In most of the companies, it is a fashion statement to say that they are ‘Professional’ and no emotions. But, emotions is what makes the BEST come out of human beings. We should have emotions. But, we should not become emotional about results.
05. A full time Excellence team: Structure wise a full time Excellence team is a must to sustain the good work in the ‘Happening Company’. The Excellence team has to be owned by people at the top. This is a very important piece in completing the puzzle of ‘Happening Company’.
06. Focus on People Development & Learning in the Company: The ‘Happening Company’ would have a high focus on Learning and People Development. The Development of People will not be done only by the HR Department. Every Senior person in the Company would own the Training and Development. There would be several events happening in the company that are for developing the employees.
As earlier said, the ‘Happening Company’ tag is not a permanent one. A Company can lose its’ status when something slips from the above parameters.
It is the responsibility of the Leadership to sustain this. To sustain this, a Leader has to go beyond his own limitations. For this, he has to know his limitations and acknowledge them. Once he/she acknowledges them, they can be addressed quite easily.
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