Context is the tone, the environment, the meaning behind the activity in a team or organisation and I think the leader’s job is to set the context.
If I ask you, what are the big leadership challenges you are facing at the moment what would you say.......?
· Company merger?
· Change initiative?
· Large sales programme?
· Implementation of a new IT system?
· Organisational CSR initiative?
If I now ask you, as a community/town/city/country, what are the big leadership challenges you/we are facing.......?
· Health care?
· Economic crisis?
· Education?
· Employment?
· Wealth gap?
Now, as a planet, as a wider community of humans, what are the big leadership challenges we are facing and going to face in the next 10, 20 even 50 years....?
· Climate change?
· Peak oil?
· World water shortage?
· Population explosion?
· Food shortages?
· Fuel shortages?
And what are you leading within all this?
Since this is my blog here is my perspective, we MUST lead any and everything we are doing within the context of the final list above, the big planet based stuff. And for me this is us leading with ‘sustainable development’ in mind all the time. It is the only possible viable solution. We need to lead everything we do with 3 things in mind all on the theme of profit. Profit is an enabler, more than that it is essential. But profit in 3 key areas;
· Social profit
· Environmental profit
· Financial profit
Once you are interrogating all your decisions as a leader in the context of these 3 bottom lines then maybe, just maybe, we might be making more moves towards a better planet and, let’s face it, it is the only one we’ve got.
So, you have permission to make profit and the more profit you make the more good you can do; and within that try to make a social profit and an environmental profit.
That’s my context, my triple bottom line and I’m clear that all I do operates within that context ... what’s your context?
Piers Carter
Facilitation, coaching & leadership
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