It is time to be good again.

In the early days, corporations, both big and small, played an important role in our community. They were more local. Clients and employees came from the local community. Leaders were influential members of society, respected and appreciated for the contribution they and their business made to the community. They balanced profitability with being good to clients, community and employees. In fact, if they got the balance wrong, they would feel the consequences from these stakeholder groups pretty quickly. 

As companies became larger, more dependent on broader capital markets, more global and more removed from their community, shareholder value, profits and share price appreciation became the focus of leadership. The community, environment, employees, and their role in society became less important, resulting in lesser trust.

And here we are, it’s 2020 and people are being impacted in terrible ways because of the Global pandemic, societies are changed forever, and life is not set to return to what it was before.

In leadership, it is time to resurrect the past. 

It is time to be good again. 

It is time to normalize caring about our colleagues. 

It is time to be attuned to their feelings, their physical and mental health, and the balance they have in their lives. Unfortunately, you can’t turn empathy on overnight. People don’t learn to care about others, they either do or don’t. And this has largely been made worse because leadership teams over recent decades have been built to deliver shareholder value. Leaders haven’t been measured based on how genuinely nice and caring they are. Being good to people is not considered a priority, for most. 

But we must find a way to make it so.

Leadership teams are going to need to balance their approach and include or hire leaders that can balance the economic performance of the company with true empathic, authentic care for employees, their communities and clients. This does not mean giving the Head of Human Resources 15 minutes to speak at management meetings. This must be integrated at all levels of the business. Being good to people must be a business strategy. Not an HR strategy. 

The economy is in a rough spot, and while most employees may not be in a position to change jobs now, they will remember if you hadn’t cared about their well-being. They will take note and when the opportunity presents itself, they will find the companies that match their values, and they will leave. In the years ahead it will be the caring, empathic companies that will thrive. If you are one of them, double down and let your employees spread the word, if you are not, you will need to build this competency and embed it into the fabric of your company. 

I am encouraged that many companies are discussing this in their boardrooms, but talking the talk won’t be good enough. And the doing won’t be easier. This requires a deep cultural shift, evolved business models and new leadership. Hard work indeed, but at this point it is vital. 

We need new visionary and courageous leaders - good people.