What or How?

What is more important to an organization, What you do, or How you do it?

That's the question Bec Kennedy of Australia asked Richard Branson in Entrepreneur magazine.

Is the organization's purpose and mission more important, or are the methods and efficiency of how the organization works more important?

After reading the question, I was curious as to what Mr. Branson's answer would be. What would you say?

Mr. Branson answered that while efficiency and profitability are certainly important to every company, but acting responsibly is more important for long term success. Do you agree? It's hard to argue with the logic.

Acting responsibly helps to motivate and engage your employees. This is especially true for many non-profit organizations. Motivated and engaged employees strive to work more efficiently and effectively to continue with and build upon the success of the organization. Motivated and engaged employees translates into higher levels of customer service. Motivated and engaged employees search for ways to develop, build, and deliver higher quality products and services.

This all translates to more loyal customers, more customers, and lower operating costs. That leads to higher profits. Mr. Branson calls this the virtuous cycle. Does this work in your organization? Can it?

Who are They?

I know the name, but I no nothing about Richard Branson. Sir Richard Branson, I should say, of Virgin Group fame. Obviously successful, but when you only know someone from news stories about them you usually have some pre-conceived notion about them. Since I've never really paid attention to Sir Richard, I didn't really give him any thought beyond "probably just another arrogant rich guy."

But I read an article in Entrepreneur Magazine written by Sir Richard (what's the proper way to address him?) yesterday, and I now have a positive opinion of him. He makes some very insightful comments about something you probably haven't given any thought to, but certainly will if you read the article.

He writes about employees using the term "they" when speaking about something negative, but using "we" when talking about positive things. Very interesting, and thinking about it will change your perception of the culture of your workplace. As a leader, you want your employees to think "we" whether the news or issue is good or bad. "They", or Us vs. Them, is a mentality that hinders your organization's performance and must be overcome.