I was writing, exactly a year ago, on this subject, with no idea of what was going to happen. I was thinking at that time that succeeding in developing a healthy organization might be a very good goal for 2020, especially because the whole context of accelerated technological development allowed companies to focus much more on people's needs, along with the perpetual performance requirements. I am now looking back at 2020 and I see that all year organizational health was our hot topic in the concrete, nonfigurative way. And, unless organizations have been completely or almost completely closed, in areas directly affected by the pandemic, the vast majority of others have resisted. They may feel convalescent in 2021, having to catch up with the slower pace or the changes they had to make in 2020. Some may have grown fast last year and now need resources like vitamins to strengthen a healthy organization. But most of them passed the test!

A Healthy organization

Has the concept of a healthy organization somehow changed this year 2020? Principled, no.

Organizational health has the same definition and represents the vitality that the company has, both in the human and commercial dimensions of its results.

What emerged as milk foam to the surface this year 2020 is the need to change the leadership paradigm. Process in times of pain, uncomfortable and rejected by many leaders for whom it is a healthy team or organization that "does as I say", an organization that is more sensible and obedient that "this is how it is in times of crisis".

Some companies have begun to invest and create the framework for discussion and awareness of the need for empathetic leadership, of the need for trust-based leadership, in an environment where organizations cannot perform without these two ingredients. I do this proactively, realizing that without constantly exercising, you can't keep your "muscles and ligaments" in shape, that is, to remain a healthy organization.

The quality of relationships between people

Apart from the need for human solidarity highlighted by the pandemic, people live and work in a society marked by a strong vacuum of trust: in the leaders of society, in the measures that are taken to protect the population, in the perspectives related to everyone's life, in the responsibility of the leaders, in their ability to connect with people's needs. Against this background of anxiety and widespread lack of confidence, when they come to work, people have expectations that ultimately have to do with their emotional and mental hygiene. In 2019, Deloitte published a study stating that it is healthy organizations that will succeed in becoming social organizations, in which leaders meet their expectations of integrity and relationship based on the trust that people have: be led carefully, respect, based on a mutual understanding that requires, more than ever, the transformation of the paradigm of leadership.

In organizational health, the quality of relationships between people is a determining ingredient. Here are some topics that appear mostly in the discussions I have with top company leaders. They feel the pressure and are concerned about the continuity of the business and the health of the business they run.

Beliefs about empathy

There is still the belief (and confusion) that being empathetic and flexible means taking over, understanding, and accepting people's problems without measure, being tolerant of poor performance, or giving up some quality standards. Empathy is still associated with a personal surrender, which can show weakness, empathy is associated with the need for time (or more precisely the lack of it) as if, to be empathic, you should allocate extra time.

Organizational health is based on empathy, just as good anamnesis of a doctor is based on empathy. It is not enough just the factual aspects, what you can measure through analysis, it is necessary to look holistically, at how the "patient" perceives the situation, how he lives, what kind of support he has or does not, what kind of conditions he has to be able to maintain his health. In organizations changing, through continuous adaptation processes that create organizational stress, challenges, and threats that are difficult to predict, a wider look is needed: what makes them capable of reinventing themselves, keeping from their culture only what is favorable, unlearning or learning new habits of organizational life? A difficult process with a major emotional impact. Both at the employee level and at the leadership level, who are going through the same process with responsibility for the company's success?

Empathy is the main way to collect a set of complex information so that those who run, at any level, can make the best possible decisions. An empathic dialog, where the exchange is between two people who together have to achieve certain results, regardless of their role in the organization, will generate a more subtlety of information in real-time. Organizations, to test how healthy they are, measure once a year climate study: How people feel and how they relate to what is happening in the company. Is that enough? Would it not be healthier to find more easy, real-time ways to test how we are together and how we are good to succeed in times of transformation?

That is why the leaders' faith in the need for empathy and its understanding requires a fair and immediate re-cadence.

Beliefs about trust

An organization that wants to stay healthy invests in generating a confident environment where people can afford to develop authentic relationships, where people can afford to give feedback to each other, and hold each other accountable for shared outcomes. To be able to afford to be themselves, respecting those around them as well.

The challenges of remote work have brought the theme of trust back to other productivity or efficiency issues. The faith present in many environments is that you give people the confidence to the contrary when careful control is the healthiest and safest method. Provided you know where to put the fine line that allows autonomy and the creation of a healthy team from the other side, which requires rigorous control and a great source of pressure and stress both for people and especially for the leader, who becomes uneasy, anxious and much more rigid in its approaches. This is because the term agility is the home star in the vast majority of companies.

Empathy is the trigger of trust. The empathic leadership is based on the desire to learn and show care for others. I have been advocating for a reliable leadership workshop for many years. The dialog I have about trust brings to mind the strong beliefs about the roles we have in companies and, very often, the confusion between the interactions and exchanges required by roles and the human interactions of those who occupy these roles. Organizations need roles to create structure and order. We need to remember that the roles are occupied by people who, to cope, need mental, emotional, and physical resilience at the same time. And very confident.

Beliefs about order and control

A healthy organization can create order without rigidity. Remaining agile, capable of moving quickly, making quick decisions, reacting as a whole, and finding easy ways of action. But that is without chaos.

2020 has fully demonstrated the need for agility. We have been put in completely unforeseen circumstances for which I do not think there was any organization ready. In general, companies make scenarios taking into account trends, changes in the industry, and sociological research. It was impossible to predict that the whole world would stop close. And it has not restarted yet. 2020 was a kind of fire test for organizations to prove how healthy they are, and what immune system they have. And the immune system is not kept healthy by taking some vitamins overnight. Healthy life and continuous training are required. Otherwise, you only panic.

In many organizations, leaders at various levels have entered the bout in the last year: Sleep problems, irritability, increased fatigue, excess authority, or concern about what is happening in their teams, which they have not seen at a place for a year. There is no very open talk about this, and it is hard to believe that an organization can be kept healthy if those who shape its culture are the first to suffer and are affected in their physical, emotional, or mental health. There is a need to recover budget losses, but the price that organizations that do not understand to adjust the times can pay may be higher than a sales figure in a year of global crisis.

The organizational immune system is represented by order and clarity, but also by flexibility and empathy, trust, and good quality of people-to-people relations. They allow the body to be mobilized to cope with the disease. The order and structure in an organization can be derived from existing systems, but they are supported by the human factor.

How do we re-establish organizational health?

It is known that if you suffer or are in convalescence, it is the positive approach that helps you to get back faster and enjoy every progress, knowing that you will be able to reclaim your habits and pleasures of everyday life. A healthy organization is an organization where the purpose, hope, and confidence that people can achieve this goal, connection and real team spirit based on solidarity facilitate adaptation, self-employment, and act with determination.

The leadership team is essential to feel this health and to feel strong and rooted in the reality which, although difficult, offers tremendous opportunities for development and rapid change toward simplification and digitization. Leaders need to strengthen a strong mindset in which the paradigm of leading people is anchored in a strong, open relationship based on camaraderie and mutual respect.

Investing in working with an executive coach, to give the chance and create the appropriate space for reflection and self-knowledge, a space designed to create a new vision of the future, is an investment that will recover with great added value. Especially in transformational coaching, a lot of work is done on understanding personal paradigms, beliefs, and values, which can be accelerators or limiters at times, in this process of creating a healthy culture.

Then, training resilience and trust leadership skills to build new ways of connecting and dialog in organizations is again an investment that differentiates between maintaining a healthy body and perpetuating a fragile body.

If for the financial and operational health of companies, the last 10 to 15 years have allowed progress, now is the time to strengthen organizational health mechanisms related to people, which will overcome the concern for beautiful headquarters and collaborative workspaces. The pandemic has sent us to a corner from which we can see the need for real connection, rather than the artistic coloring of the workspace. We like the beautiful colors of authentic human relationships!

Article published on www.revistacariere.ro.