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“The sole purpose of a corporation is to create shareholder value” the professor said. I was sitting in class at Harvard Business School 23 years ago and cringed. Surely, corporations don’t exist just to make their owners more money, right?? So started my next 2 decades of soul searching. Is there space for social leadership in business? I say YES!

I vehemently disagree with that old professor. Every entity has a responsibility to all of humanity. Corporations must create sustainable value for all their stakeholders: employees, customers, neighbors, owners, society and the planet. Thankfully, I am not the only one. In 2019, the Business Roundtable put out a similar statement.

Why is Social Leadership in Business Important?

Businesses, both big and small, are a huge cornerstone of our society. They employ billions of people and drive change around the world. Historically, some of that change has been good and some has been truly terrible. Business leaders who acknowledge and embrace this responsibility exercise social leadership. They strive for their company to make a positive impact on the world.

How Can You Exercise Social Leadership in Business?

As a business person, you might be doing good in the world by volunteering or donating to social organizations. But, how can you be a social leader within your own company?

First Step: Read Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values by Fred Kofman

This book changed my life and it might also change yours. For years, I had been drifting away from the corporate world. I put my business and coaching skills at the service of social leaders in philanthropy almost exclusively. Conscious Business made me realize that I also have a duty to inspire social leadership within corporations.

A conscious business promotes mindfulness for all its stakeholders. Employees are encouraged to investigate the world with rigorous scientific reasoning and to reflect on their role in it with equally rigorous moral reasoning. They are invited to contemplate their own selves, finding what it means to live with virtue, meaning and happiness. They are also asked to think of their colleagues as human beings, rather than as “human resources”. Finally, they are required to understand their customers, offering them products and services that support their growth and well-being. A conscious business fosters peace and happiness in individuals, respect and solidarity in the community, and mission accomplishment in the organization.

Fred Kofman, Conscious Business: How to Create Value Through Values

Understand your own Values and Ethics

Social leaders live and work according to their values and ethics. Create your statement of ethical values so you can practice them daily. What do you stand for? Who is your best self? How do you want to treat others?

Once you understand your values, you can better apply them no matter the circumstance.

Be Honorable

When you commit to something, keep your word. Have the courage to take responsibility and acknowledge your screw ups. Social leaders do not play the blame game.

Promote a Business Culture of Social Leadership

Encourage your company to put ethics and social good at the center of its processes, such as: hiring, planning, goal setting, promotion and performance evaluation. Businesses can promote social leadership through incentives as well as behavioral nudges. People pay attention, not to what a company says, but what it does.

Start this Conversation with your Peers

Start a conversation about social leadership in business with your co-workers and people in your industry. What’s your shared purpose? How can you add value to the world right now? It’s the right time to start planting seeds to inspire change.

Have your Business Take the B Impact Assessment

B Lab created this free assessment to help you measure your company’s impact on the world. This is a great tool to see where you are in your collective social leadership efforts. It is also one of the first steps in becoming a Certified B Corporation like Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia or Hootsuite.

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