Your organization’s well-being: the ultimate performance hack

Routine blood tests provide results that indicate how healthy you are. Still, to advise you on what needs to change, a doctor needs to understand what activities you are doing (or not) and how they have impacted your well-being.

The same goes for organizations. Having a healthy organization essentially describes how an organization works, how it aligns itself to its strategy and vision, how it executes it, and how resilient it is under external or internal pressure.

With organizations facing massive amounts of change, an organization's well-being remains among the most powerful levers leaders have to transform and drive sustainable, short and long-term performance.

When there are massive disruptions on several fronts– from the "future of work," automation and Ai, or even a global pandemic – it is tempting to overlook organizational well-being, but it is as crucial as ever. 

We have tested and perfected our Wellness Intelligence® technology and diagnostic services for over ten years in the world's most competitive marketplaces. And during that time, we have learned that working on employee and organizational well-being yields actual results: Companies better than average well-being create happier and healthier teams of people, with less turnover and higher performance.

The research we have on the LEON Insight Diagnostic found that the healthiest organizations are the ones that focus more on sustainable, long-term performance and growth.

The result is even more impactful within the same organization, where, on average, over forty percent performance improvements on business units that worked on well-being vs. those that didn't.

Like medical doctors, we've learned much about applying a proper diagnosis. We developed LEON Insight® to apply analytical rigor to organizational and employee well-being, and help leaders manage it proactively. 

We find that most organizations can be measured against six health insights and 28 leadership focuses, which describe both the "soft" and "hard" elements of the climate of an organization. Consistent with the medical analogy, outcomes and practices are not all that different from going to your doctor for an annual physical.

Suppose one of the six insights shows that success and alignment are low. In that case, the insights behind that outcome (e.g., leadership, product & services, goals, etc.) will indicate what the organization is doing (and not doing) to contribute to that outcome.

Our research shows that the happiest and healthiest organizations align with one of four "playbooks," each defined by a unique mix of leadership focuses. Guided by their strategic goals and industry context, organizations choose the playbook most aligned to deliver on their objectives. A playbook helps to provide a clear blueprint and roadmap for working on organizational well-being and achieving peak performance.  We will explore playbooks further in subsequent blog posts. Here's to your organization's well-being and happiness.

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