Why it is Worth the Trouble
There are truly enough reasons to resign, to despair, or to look at the future pessimisticly, and these reasons are constantly fed. Lately, for example, in a newspaper interview a scientist described a company that has started to disburse the boni at the beginning of the year. If you don’t reach your goals, you will have to pay it back: loss aversion as a motivation booster.
Well...you would wish that the findings of behavioral economics would contribute to make things better, and the first thing that comes to these manager’s minds is to use it to make their employees so desperate that they will do absolutely anything to reach their goals – included a boost of criminal energy and blind readiness to assume a risk. Learnings: zero.
But then there are these other thing that make you feel a breeze of confidence, collected from media news of the last couple of months:
Blackrock – yes even they – will give climate risks a higher weight when deciding on investmens, and after all they make it public and thus observable. UBS wants to persuade private investors to invest in enterprises that support the UN development goals. Apparently this begins to pay off.
Juno wants to oust Uber by doing pretty much the same, except that they treat their drivers properly, and that is their official strategy, displayed prominently on the starting page of their Website, and their business is growing. At the same time Uber’s president Jeff Jones hits the road after only seven months, commenting: „Clearly the beliefs and approaches that determined my career are not compatible with what I have seen and experienced with Uber.“ (NZZ online, march 20). Integrity and consequence – for him I would work.
Jack Palmisano, legendary former leader of IBM, about the question how to lead 400'000 people: „...we always had a huge talent pool. But beyond these management tools I always looked for personality“ (Handelszeitung, Dec 15). Feels nice not to be alone with this attitude.
The container vessel shipping compangy Maersk has reduced it’s CO2 output by 11 million tons. The comment of their president, besides mentioning the very welcome savings effect: „We believe that having sustainable operations gives us a competitive advantage.“
Kerry Kennedy uses her big name to show investors by numbers that they face increased risks if they invest in companies that systematically violate human rights.
Mathias Schüz, professor for responsible leadership at ZHAW claimes that leaders need more emotional and spiritual intelligence. So this topic has at least reached research and teaching, and I claim that the pressure to deliver will grow. Good thing.
Google allows that corporate ads are shown right next to neonazi videos. Swiss Life, Baer, Nestle, Electrolux, and Ikea accept the consequences and stop their advertising on these channels. Over 250 companies worldwide do the same, and Havas, one of the world’s biggest agencies, suspend the Google advertising of their clients (SRF news online, march 23). And behold, Google will move.
So already we get a glimpse at a future where only companies and leaders will succeed who will weigh integrity and responsible action higher than profit. And that’s why it is worth the trouble to work on things turning out well, where you can, after all. I will not change anything about that.
The best remedy for cynicism is inside you. I like this thought, how about you?
