“Where do you stand?”
This question is coming up more and more each day and the answer you give can have drastic impacts. Often times we are left in a “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” situation. There is no right answer. Even no answer is not a safe haven anymore. To agree with one side will upset the other. To agree with neither is to upset both. So where do we stand when there is no safe ground?
Stand where it is authentic for your business.
There are very few businesses that do not have a stated mission, vision, and purpose for their organization. In some places, these are just words on a wall, but regardless of how they have been used until now, they can be an executive’s access to stands that are both authentic and durable. That is what separates effective stands from pandering. Stands are aligned with core values and are not dependent on others.
There has been a breakthrough in the authenticity of business in the last three years. Doing something because you have to and saying it is because of a personal passion will trip people’s radars as inauthentic. If you are going to stand for something, you have to find some aspect of it for which you can authentically stand.
This stand does not have to be some big pie-in-the-sky ideal, though those are often inspiring. It can be simple, down-to-earth, or niche. As long as the stand is something you and your business can stand for consistently across time and regardless of circumstance, it will get the job done. As an added benefit, when you stand for something authentically and consistently, it gives your people some semblance of certainty in an uncertain world. It provides a sense of stability and generates trust in the organization. While this is not the stated purpose of taking a stand, it is a natural consequence.
