Of all the things that an organization seeks, growth is perhaps the most important, and the most consistently sought. The importance of growth as a concept to a business house couldn’t be overstated since it’s the idea upon which all the strategies for the organization's functioning are derived from.
While it’s perhaps imperative that an organization should consistently seek growth- after all, why else should one run a business?- an important fact which everyone forgets in the process is that not all types of growth are equal. Put another way, not every growth brings equal amounts of profit for the shareholders.
What this means is that while a leader should chart out a path of growth for the organization, it’s important that they should consider whether their plan would indeed take them towards the best mode of growth.
Like finding common areas on Venn diagrams, choosing the right growth path should be done based on a method and not on a hunch
Choosing from over the other paths
You could perhaps consider the different paths of growth possible for your organization as the paths that you come upon at a particular point on a road you are on. Each of these paths leads to different destinations with their own attractions and advantages.
The commonality in these destinations is that they all lie ahead of you. So, from the vantage point of distances covered, reaching any of these destinations would be progress. But the catch is that not every one of these destinations would result in profits for your shareholders. A visionary leader would then identify the optimal destination to arrive from among these choices.
The idea is to find the growth trajectory that doesn’t slacken in pace with time.
Before we get into how to locate that particular trajectory, let’s look at what causes the above-mentioned slackening in the first place.
Being cautious about slowing growth
One of the reasons for the slowing growth could be ‘natural.’ For instance, your organization may have grown by serving a client that was a pioneer in their particular field. But now, the client may have reached a saturation point in their field. The only way for them to grow further would be if they branch out into other fields. This, of course, is not a decision that’s in your hand.
And since, as a service provider, you are dependant on the client’s progress for your own growth, you may find your growth slackening at this point.
Another thing that slackens growth even more is that managers tend to cut expenses at the first sign of slowing growth. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the expense-cut didn’t occur by cutting down bonuses or reducing salaries of employees. This gives the change agents even lesser reasons to help the company come out of the blue.
Choosing the path with True Personal Vision
Now that you’ve seen the reasons for slowdown, it’s now time to look at how to identify the best growth trajectory.
The answer is found in three words: True Personal Vision.
It’s the innate vision that could be found in your own self and nowhere else in the universe. Simultaneously a testament to your uniqueness and a doorway to a more prosperous future, it’s a vision that helps you define the future trajectory of an organization- the destination towards which you wish to take the organization.
The growth strategies you define then would be made with the aim of realizing this vision. The beauty of True Personal Vision is that it’s inimitable, given how you are pursuing a unique vision. Whereas for most companies, the strategies for growth in itself defines to a large extent the culture for the organization, in your case, it’s the vision you pursue that forms the crux.
And this vision being immutable, the trajectory of growth is therefore clearly defined- a straight and broad path that takes you not to any disaster but to the most profitable stage for the shareholders.
The question that naturally arises at this point is: If True Personal Vision is innate, why is it so hard to discover? The answer is rather simple. The myriad distractions that everyday living brings your way obscures the vision from your own view. It becomes like a mirror that’s covered with sand. You need to but wipe the sand off the mirror to see the reflection clearly.
To find your True Personal Vision, you need a warm and friendly space, where experts would be available to guide you to your vision.
Temenos Vision Lab or TVL is a unique session developed by Temenos+Agility to help you realize your True Personal Vision. Using proprietary tools, TVL is conducted by some of the best leadership coaches in business with extensive experience in conducting transformative sessions.
