“Do you focus on the numbers, the outcomes and the fruit? Or do you focus on the purpose, people, innovation, culture and root of your success. Always remember the amount of fruit we produce is just an outcome and measurement of how well we are nurturing our root. If we take care of our root we’ll always have an abundant supply of fruit. Ignore the root and say goodbye to the fruit” Jon Gordon

I see leaders that suffer from focus issues all the time. They are so busy trying to fix one or two symptoms that they lose sight of the real issues in their organisation. Instead of working on fixing the culture, which can be a slow and difficult process, they try to fix one employee who they deem to be the problem. Often that person is simply magnifying a long standing issue that has been ignored.

What is the point of an organisation that can make a lot of money in the short term if it has no hope of surviving in the long term? Sure, it’s productive today but, like a plant that is allowed to bear too much fruit early in its life, it is highly likely to run out of energy and fail to produce in the long term. I would rather have an organisation or a team that takes a bit longer to produce but will keep producing consistently over a longer period of time.  This “root” focus also results in more repeatable successes that can be transferred to other product or service lines.

So where is your focus this week? Do you need to focus less on short term outcomes and more on the root of your long term success?

Tags: Change management, employee engagement, Leadership and management, Leadership skills, Organisational culture, www.letsgrow.com.au