(Editor's note: This post is part of the HBR Debate "What Does Business Owe the World?")
What must our organizations do today to help our country maintain its greatness and to sustain the democracy? What does business owe the world?
These are not abstract questions we can ignore as someone else's business, or with "comfortable indifference," to use Dr. John W. Gardner's memorable admonition. For our country is made up of institutions, enterprises, and organizations in three interdependent and equal sectors, and its greatness will be determined in part by how we in our own enterprises and institutions, in our own way, respond to these challenging questions.
According to Peter Drucker, "Leaders in every single institution and in every single sector ... have two responsibilities. They are responsible and accountable for the performance of their institutions, and that requires them and their institutions to be concentrated, focused, limited. They are responsible also, however, for the community as a whole."
Peter strived to make business leaders see the community as the responsibility of the corporation. He called on leaders to embody "the Spirit of Performance" by exhibiting high levels of integrity in their moral and ethical conduct; focusing on results; building on strengths; and leading beyond borders to meet the requirements of stakeholders, ultimately serving the common good.
It is my passionate belief that leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do. Yet it is what leaders do that others see and judge, not what leaders are. So what can a leader do?
Ensure that your actions are congruent with your values. Challenge the gospel — there should be no sacred cows as we challenge every policy, practice, procedure, and assumption. Joseph A. Maciariello, a great Drucker disciple, tells us that an organization high in spirit of performance is one that is led by executives who are committed to doing the right thing and to getting the right things done.
The world continues to be more connected and more than ever the actions of organizations are scrutinized by the media and the public. Having an effective appreciation and approach toward corporate social responsibility and ethical, principled leadership is essential. The need to make a profit should be balanced with fair trade, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and other ethical principles.
Ignoring externalities threatens excellence, ethics, and engagement in organizations, but addressing these externalities can transform challenges into opportunities. When we truly focus on the common good, service is a privilege —not a chore but a remarkable opportunity.
In the complexity and the context of our lives as leaders, leading in tenuous times, there are the most magnificent, most compelling, most significant opportunities to lead, to find solutions, and to build a healthy, diverse, inclusive community that cares about all of its people.
For leaders in all three sectors there is a new appreciation that when we build the healthy community, it is for the greater good. And even for a leader with little concern about the greater good, there is the reality that a sick and ailing community cannot produce the healthy, energetic, productive workforce our enterprises demand if indeed they are to be viable and even present at the end of this turbulent decade.
The bottom line of every social sector organization is "changed lives." That is possibly why Peter Drucker said, "It is the social sector that may yet save the society." But only in collaboration with our partners in the private and public sectors can we move beyond the walls and build this essential, cohesive community.
Frances Hesselbein is President and CEO of the Leader to Leader Institute, formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation. She is the co-editor of 27 books in 29 languages.
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