Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?
Fresh is best, isn’t it? I was thinking about this while squeezing oranges, wondering if this tasty treat was worth aggravating my carpel tunnel. I was confident the next orange would be the one to fill my glass, or maybe the next one…surely this one would do it. After a while I regretted passing up the bottles of juice at the local market. Is more better? If you asked me that question right after squeezing those 24 oranges I would have said no!
What about when it comes to leadership and steering the team? Are we trying to squeeze so much into a positive outcome that we miss the opportunities for quality? Are we overloading our organizations in a time we could be scoping for new ways to improve processes and discover hidden talents in our people?
Quantity vs. Quality
Organizations in all sectors are taking a hard hit. It almost feels like our economy is the out of season fruit. Layoffs require we get more done with less. Sometime this can cause leaders to feel they are in a start-up role wearing more hats than they originally bargained for. Remember those carpal tunnel producing oranges? There was a point when there was no more juice. Same happens with people — at some point they stop rendering quality results, creating a negative impact on the culture. This scenario can be mitigated with insight. As a leader, sacrificing quality with watered down quantity is not an option. You can preserve quality when you reduce the “squeeze” on limited resources and find ways to reenergize the workforce. This kind of preservation can be done when you focus on awareness, communication, and culture when pressure might otherwise create the squeeze.
