CULTIVATE LEADERSHIP WITH ORGANIZATIONAL AWARENESS

Leaders must take a stand and make it count. Where does your organization stand?

Following the movement to fight for racial freedom, liberation, and justice, there have been mostly lukewarm corporate responses. Hollow statements acknowledging Black Lives Matter’s importance, or social posts, are now followed by an unsettling quiet. It is an unnerving calm, and unfortunately, it feels like there has been a corporate sigh of relief with the hope that the turmoil is over.

However, businesses in the United States are reading this all wrong. The quiet we are witnessing is not quiet by any stretch of the imagination. It is the calm before the next movement. A possibly combative and divisive moment in our country’s history is approaching as a trio of imminent factors awaits: COVID-19, the presidential election, and potential national unrest.

Employees, clients, and customers watch for organizations to have a powerful voice on societal issues, like racial justice.

Now is the time to develop organizational integrity and take the lead in ways that companies never have before.

Below are five considerations that every leader needs to brainstorm as they create more organizational integrity.

1. Take a position

Social engagement is good business. Many Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Baby Boomers believe it is vital that brands they support invest in causes wholeheartedly.

Most citizens across a broad age gap wish to see organizations take a position on important causes. Therefore, it is clear this communication is socially significant and vital to an organization’s bottom line.

2. Figure out what matters to your organization

Challenging issues will always come to light in the future. Every organization should have a united approach in specifying which issues to be outspoken and others that are not pertinent to your objective.

If a leader does not, personnel and consumers will question your organizational dedication, whether outspoken or not, because you have not efficiently managed their expectations. Of course, organizations cannot take a stance on every issue, and to be sensible, there should be clear-cut justification for every action.

3. Build a sensible social strategy

Begin on the essentials—the five W’s. Agree on who’s organizing the plan, what the organization’s responsibilities and procedures will be, when to initiate the work, distributing the program internally and externally, and why the organization is taking a position.

Answering the five basic W questions, keeping the organization’s values top of mind will assist in genuinely charting a map of direction. In the beginning, make it simple and do not try to tackle every issue. In the end, it is more important to be authentic, dependable, and dedicated.

4. Be reliable, vigorous, and responsible

Your clients and staff will see through the “one and done” actions and will blame organizations if they see a discrepancy in support. If you now support BLM, education, and teachers, the environment, or a soup kitchen, there is an expectation that you will support those causes into the future. Share progress internally and externally so all can see progress, hardships, or successes. Doing so helps build responsibility and showcases promises made.

5. Involve clients and co-workers

A more proactive strategy may include engaging others in the various causes the organization is committed to by recruiting clients and co-workers’ charitable attitudes.

This could lead to personal time off for volunteering to build a trail or help at a beach cleanup, financially donating to specific causes, joining philanthropic committees, etc. No matter the action, involving others to increase the overall impact and ownership of those causes creates organizational integrity.

It is easy to focus on making money, but it is much harder to make a difference. Organizations must make a difference, take a position, and build integrity.