Abundance And The 4Ms Of Prosperity

Abundance is the lack of lack.

Abundance can relate to money, time, power and opportunities and can create freedom. Fostering abundance and developing prosperous stakeholders requires leaders to create an atmosphere where their team members and other stakeholders (family, vendors, customers, etc.) can feel like they are part of an organization with limitless potential.

Of course, your balance sheet and how you compensate your staff are essential factors in developing an abundant organization, but great leaders operate in a way that helps their team focus on growing assets while addressing liabilities. Your company’s assets can include anything of value, such as ingenuity, relationships, and knowledge. In addition, your liabilities can go beyond financial obligations to include other obstacles to abundance, including anything that gets in the way of productivity, such as a lack of transparency, flexibility, or ability to learn and grow on the job.

When a business is challenged, teams are often forced to operate from a “lack” instead of abundance, often closing people down to seeing opportunities. Frequently, this attitude of lack is the direct result of leadership’s attitudes and behaviors that may be steeped in fear instead of hope:

Lack: We are having a bad quarter and need to cut staff and expenses drastically.

Abundance: We have not met our revenue goals this quarter, but if we pull together, we can create a strategy and tactics to exceed revenue goals over the next three quarters.

In thinking about creating prosperous stakeholders, I have created four types of habits that I refer to as the 4M’s of prosperity. Here are examples that will help you prepare for the activities below:

· Mind: Have a day each quarter where you and your staff do a community project together, like working in a soup kitchen.

· Management: Have a clear operating budget that you review with your team each month so you can develop transparency and involve them in creating more prosperity.

· Mastery: Provide organized training classes in those areas that will improve sales and efficiency.

· Marketing: Research and brainstorm “out there” ideas for connecting to more customers and try one idea a month.

Leader Activity:

1. What messages am I sending to my staff that may create a lack vs. an abundance mentality?

2. How can I create a more prosperous team atmosphere?

Team Activity:

1. Discuss the 4M’s and brainstorm new habits the team can adopt to create a more abundant atmosphere and profitable operation.

2. Choose one idea and create a one-month plan to implement it.

Learn more about loving your work and providing loveable work as an effective leader, and meet other inspiring leaders in future installments of this series.