All of us want to grow. We want to be part of a growing family and a growing organization. But not all of us understand the tenants of healthy growth. Here are five hallmarks of growth that create health.
- Healthy growth creates momentum. A thing that is stagnant is boring. It’s discouraging. A thing that is growing in a healthy way creates momentum. Momentum creates excitement and enthusiasm, anticipation, and vision for the future.
- Healthy growth doesn’t out-pace your systems. By that I mean you don’t want to grow too fast. It almost sounds like heresy doesn’t it? When we think about growth we want a lot of it. We want all we can take. We want it to come out of the end of the hose just as fast as it can. But remember there is a big difference between drinking water out of a fire hydrant and drinking water out of a faucet. One gets the job done, that is, quenching your thirst. The other one can kill you.
- Healthy growth doesn’t out-pace outflow as opposed to income. Here is the one thing I’ve learned about all growth in organizations. The benefit of more; more people, more work, more things, more money always lags behind the liabilities. In other words, it’s sowing then reaping, not reaping then sowing. Be careful that your growth doesn’t send you into bankruptcy before it replenishes your resources.
- Healthy growth means I can find the right people to handle the load. Growth that overwhelms your present staff situation, even if it’s a one-man operation – or one woman operation (pardon me) – is healthy growth. When the demands of your growth grind your energy and output into the ground, it’s unhealthy.
- Healthy growth always keeps you focused on the main objective. Growth for growth’s sake so you can build bigger buildings and big organizations that require maintenance and more and more money is not the objective. Healthy growth comes as a result of hitting the target of your stated mission. If your mission is to help more and more married people grow great marriages over time, then that always is more important than your offices, your computers, or your staff members.
Remember, not all growth is good growth. To grow in a way that it can be sustained, you need to understand the dynamics of healthy growth.