Most small businesses tend to be either Healthy, or Smart. It’s rare that they are both.
However, being Healthy AND Smart should be the goal. The reason is, one without the other leads to all sorts of dysfunction.
To illustrate, let me share three stories of companies I worked for during high school and college.
Story 1 – A Caring Roofing Business
The first one was a roofing company during high school. I spent summers tearing down and replacing roofs in 100+ degree temperatures in Oklahoma City. It was tough work, and I’ll forever be grateful for the experience. The owner, Leroy, was an incredible person. He CARED about each employee, personally. He would often hire ex-cons or those down and out to try and give them a leg up. He often hold Bible studies before work and would go out of his way to care for team members in need.
Leroy was and is one of the best people I’ve ever known.
The trouble was, the business struggled. He was always helping others, but struggled to generate new work and manage finances.
Processes were always in chaos, with few clear steps and repeatable systems. As a result, we were always reinventing the wheel on every job. It was inefficient and unproductive.
As a result, the business struggled and layoffs weren’t uncommon. His family always struggled financially as well.
That roofing company was “Healthy” in terms of caring for people but not Smart.
Story 2- An Arrogant Pool franchise
A second job came putting in above-ground pools one summer in Chicago. The owner thought he could make a quick buck by assembling a team to build pools. He thought he would get some “decent” people and they’d run circles around the other teams of “red necks” and “drug addicts.”
His hubris didn’t pay off. Not only did our team perform poorly, but it was also a miserable working environment. The owner/manager was often absent, didn’t care about the quality of work, and invested little in the people. The team reflected that aloofness and didn’t work well together.
Processes were a mess, and people were a mess. It was the worst of both worlds.
The funny part? Those “rednecks” and “drug addicts”? They ran circles around our team.
That pool franchise was both NOT Healthy and NOT Smart. It lost money, and eventually disbanded as a result.
Story 3 – An Uber “Successful” Startup
The third job was during college working in a startup. That business ended up exploding, going from 20 people to 500 in just 5 years of working there. It gave me lots of opportunities to gain new experiences and serve in leadership.
This company was a resounding success financially, eventually selling to a publicly traded competitor.
However, most of the people there floundered. Turnover was through the roof. There were two classes of people in the company, with the “lower” class having to clock out to use the restroom. The other “class” was flying around the country on a private plane having fancy dinners.
People were miserable, there was little loyalty, and almost no people development beyond the basics of performing tasks.
This business was Smart but NOT Healthy.
A Valuable Lesson – Healthy AND Smart
I don’t to come across as critical of any of these examples – I’m forever grateful for the lessons I learned through each of them and for the opportunities they afforded me to grow.
However, I’ve since to come to believe that Healthy AND Smart is a worthy aspiration for any purpose-driven organization.
And it’s possible! There are example after example of organizations that are aspiring to and achieving both.
Healthy without Smart is fun but not sustainable and certainly doesn’t achieve great results.
Smart without Healthy is lifeless, joyless, and I’d argue less human than we were meant to live.
Smart AND Healthy looks like:
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Caring for people AND results
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Looking at the data AND listening to people’s perspectives
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Ensuring people are flourishing AND looking for ways to improve operations
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Having a positive culture AND discipline that lead to sustained progress
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Holding one another accountable AND enjoying the work
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Managing the pipeline/finances, AND developing people
Many of my clients are becoming both Healthy AND Smart.
Personally, I tend to naturally gravitate towards “Healthy” in my business and have to work extra hard on the “Smart” part.
What about you?
No one gets this perfectly right, but it’s possible to be both Smart AND Healthy and it’s awesome when it comes together. People want to be a part of that.
