Can company leaders give sustainable leadership, and what is it anyway? Many organizations donate part of their profits to charitable causes, and more often all the people within the organization do too. Many corporations start their own charitable off-shoot of a parent company, or establish a separate entity to assist others in need. This corporate social responsibility is one way of providing sustainable leadership.
But there is another way to provide corporate social responsibility. The 2014 Nielsen Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility documented that 51% of Millennials (21 to 34 year olds) don’t mind paying extra money for sustainable products. This gives an incentive for companies to be socially responsible. What actually does corporate social responsibility mean anyway? Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also known as corporate conscience or corporate citizenship or sustainable responsibility or sustainable business. It means that organizations embrace positive actions that improve the environment or way of living for their customers, local communities, or charitable causes – domestically or internationally. It is meant to attract like-minded customers to buy their products. And as we can see from the Nielsen Global Survey, it actually does attract potential customers. Company leaders and managers with a sustainable corporate social responsibility model can benefit both their company and their customers.
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The focus is not on the corporation giving or donating more – especially when they continually ask their employees to conduct the fund-raising efforts – but it is about understanding and recognizing opportunities to create shared experiences with employees and with customers.
Therefore an effective corporate social responsibility strategy is about adding direct value, rather than an annual allocation of a percentage of net profits. It is about investing more in direct activities such as community projects, assisting an employee who has a genuine need or cause, assisting an environmental group, embracing the need to reduce work waste – such as paper waste in the workplace, encouraging work-life balance so that employees spend more time with their children, or “greening” the landscape around their work site.
There are many ways for corporate social responsibility to improve the lives of individuals, groups, communities, or improve the environment in a visible, tangible ongoing manner. So sustainable leadership is a way of giving naturally and ethically.
