In my previous post, I mentioned three financial accounts business owners need to be familiar with to manage better a company’s performance. Today, we discuss the PNL (profit and loss) account. The Profit and Loss account tells the owner if his/her business earned profit or not.  If the sales were greater than the cost, then profit was made, while the opposite being the cost is greater than the sale then the business lost money.

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Moving away from the abstract and intangible concept of culture, we move towards the most tangible evidence of growth and performance—finance. I used to think that most business owners hold  keep a good eye on their money, only to discover, after much interaction with various businesses this may not be true. A number of entrepreneurs are lost when it comes to finances, yet it is, if anything, a basic measure of business performance.

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Last week we discussed how setting a formal structure, explaining the meaning behind ones action and taking the lead in semi-official gatherings can influence the organizational culture positively. Today, we continue with this as I discuss two other ways business owners and leaders can influence the organization towards a culture of growth and positivity.

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It’s cliché to say that positivity begets positivity, but it does. An organization that has a positive culture eventually harvests positive rewards. In last week’s post, we introduced the idea that culture is that invisible element that can make or break an organization.  For an organization to move towards growth it must cultivate a culture of growth. How?

Here’s part 1 of how:

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Growing an organization is easily associated with some numerical value such as an increase in revenue, office space or in number of employees. Rarely is growth associated with organizational culture. Yet, here we are discussing culture as an essential part of growth.

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Twenty Eleven is the year we talk about growth. We have been drawing the steps to meet an organization’s growth potential. So far, we have talked about:

• The Nature of Entrepreneurial Organizations
• Setting the Organizational Direction (Strategy)
• Taking hold of the Market (Marketing)
• Executing the Strategy
• Leading through Growth
• Cultivating the Culture of Growth
• Managing Business Performance
• Growth for the future
• The Consequences of Growth

What does it take to lead an organization through growth? I do not think there is one answer to this question. What we have presented so far are ways to manage your people—the team—that will bring you to growth. As we close our discussion on Leading through Growth, its best to understand how all of these comes together in the actual work.

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As of last week, we have so far built a team and reiterated that it is not enough to have just a group of people to call a team.  A team is composed of people working towards a common goal wherein each member take on certain team roles to ensure the success of the team in bringing the organization to the next level.  While spelling it out the way we have these past few weeks may give an impression that leading a team through growth is that easy, it is not. Your team is not a group of childhood friends. They are most likely people whose skills you have recognized as valuable and important in pushing your organization to growth.

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Now that you’ve built a team, how do you ensure that it is successful in delivering your growth requirements?  An organization needs  its team to initiate, contribute, monitor, and push boundaries in order to grow and succeed. According to Meredith Belbin, successful organizations are able to carry out nine (9) key team roles.

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Leadership is not about always having the power. Leadership can mean the willingness to delegate, as discussed last week and/or the ability to put a team together. In the modern business world, everything seems to work around teams. In our business, a team makes consulting work possible. The challenge for any leader moving towards growth is to make a group of people work together as a team.

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This year we decided to focus on topics that dealt with the essential elements of bringing an organization to growth. The curriculum design, as seen below, tackles various functions in business and areas leaders can improve on to meet the promise of growth.

• The Nature of Entrepreneurial Organizations
• Setting the Organizational Direction (Strategy)
• Taking hold of the Market (Marketing)
• Executing the Strategy
• Leading through Growth
• Cultivating the Culture of Growth
• Managing Business Performance
• Growth for the future
• The Consequences of Growth

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