The Mindful Leader by Michael Bunting

Author:Michael Bunting
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780730329770
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2016-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

How anyone at any level can make a difference

It's great when owners and top executives make the decision to lead a more mindful business. But what can we do to make a difference when we don't have complete control over how our team or organisation operates? What can a mid-level manager, or anyone at any level, do to impact the consciousness of an organisation?

First of all, understand that you have complete control over your personal purchasing and investment decisions. You can be a force for good simply through how you run your household, even if you have little or no control over how your company operates.

Second, understand that leadership is a mindset, not a title. As Jay Coen Gilbert explained, there are many examples of new conscious business practices adopted by organisations that were initiated by single individuals at all levels. These are leadership-minded people who raised their hands and said, ‘Couldn't we do this better? What if we were to change this?' Jay recommends that people choose just one thing that they care about and may be able to implement on their own, or that they are passionate enough about to gather support for the idea. Executives will change something if a lot of employees are on board with an idea and push for change.

The next obvious question is, what exactly should you do to make your company more conscious? When I asked Jay this, thinking that B Lab would have some sort of checklist, his answer was, ‘I'd rather not be prescriptive about what people should do, because the ideal scenario is people initiating mindful action themselves. So I would tell people to find something that they care about personally, and work to make that happen. If you need some basic orientation, though, a great place to start would be to look at our B Impact Assessment (BImpactAssessment.net) to see all the different opportunities there are to make a difference with your business.'

Jay gave the example of the company Etsy, which took an entire day to have every employee brainstorm all the ways they could use the company as a greater force for good. They used the B Impact Assessment to consider opportunities. One person who read the question, ‘What percentage of your employees are people with disabilities?' got excited about the possibilities. They started thinking of what jobs could be done by people with physical or mental disabilities. They identified a position, and the person who had the original idea found an agency that helps train and bring people with intellectual disabilities into the workforce. They found and hired a person, who ended up being perfect for the position.

It started with one person asking one simple question, which triggered some reflection and led to action. Anyone can look at the questions in the B Impact Assessment and go through a similar process. Find one issue that resonates with you and then do what you can to raise the question within your company and make an impact.

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