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April,
2004 Welcome
to Leadership Hand™, a monthly e-newsletter To ensure receipt, please add our e-mail address "Info@" plus our domain name to your e-mail address book. 1. The Global Community: Opportunity, Challenge and Responsibility What if you read or heard that 20 fully-loaded Boeing 747s had crashed? Can you grasp that kind of loss emotionally or intellectually? Just one would be a terrible tragedy but 20? The fact is, every single day, 8,000 people, the equivalent of 20 Boeing 747s per day, die from HIV/AIDS. From former United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to Randall Tobias, to top executives from multi-national corporations, these figures were repeated throughout the conference sponsored by the Department of Commerce and the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS. For those of us among the 200 or so attendees for whom this was new information, it was stunning. That was a month ago, and I still have not fully wrapped my mind around it and other facts: the fact that children in Africa are being raised by their grandparents because a whole generation, their parents, are dead, or that 25% of the infections in India occur due to needle re-use and thus, are preventable. What does this have to do with you as a leader? You know about the global economy--the opportunities and the challenges (which is which depends on your point of view) from such things as outsourcing jobs to cheap labor markets to entire new consumer markets beginning to open. You know about interdependence. Depending on your business you are actively strategizing around these influences or not. What you may not have considered is that with interdependence also comes responsibility--responsibility to the communities in which we live, which contribute to the production of our products or services, and in which we earn our profits. How you define "the community or communities in which you live" will determine the possibilities for contribution available to you and your organization. It could be as straightforward as you regularly giving blood, or providing your employees with a certain number of hours of paid leave to volunteer, or donating a percentage of profits, or making valuable cutting edge technologies available to those for whom it could make a radical difference in their ability to survive. Do I sound like a bleeding heart liberal? In some ways I am. I also believe capitalism can be leveraged to serve in ways we never imagined. Increased financial profitability and increasing the prosperity (economic or health) of external stakeholders are not mutually exclusive. Yes, it involves making choices about already limited resources. But when there is a goal fueled by a sense of business or corporate responsibility the solutions a team can come up with often make a quantum leap in creative genius. What had been impossible becomes possible, and often in very doable ways. What are you
doing in your business today to be in service to the communities
of which you are part? With what other companies or individuals
might you collaborate? What contributions are possible as a result
of your intellectual or human capital? If you are new to this, establish
a goal for this year and be the champion for it. A commitment delegated
to others isn't commitment--it is lip service and fails to inspire.
Follow-through
and re-assess at the end of the year. Then expect to be surprised.
Being
in service of is one of those things that comes right back to serve
you
professionally and personally in ways you never Here's to Serving Well! Beth Hand © Copyright 2007, Beth Hand. Beth Hand, MBA helps leaders increase their effectiveness and satisfaction, now and for the future. She can be reached at (+1) 703.820.8074 or via her website www.leadershiphand.com. 2. The Global Business Coalition You can learn
more about the Global Business Coalition by visiting www.businessfightsaids.org
or calling the office in New York, New York, USA at (212) 846.5893.
3. Executive Networking sponsored by DBM, ExecuNet and Hand Associates DBM, a global
provider of strategic HR solutions, ExecuNet, an industry leader
in executive job search, networking and career development, and
Hand Associates have come together to offer monthly executive networking
events. Are you in a career transition or considering one? Then
come meet other executives from diverse industries, share tips and
build business relationships! If you are living in or traveling
to Richmond, Virginia, check our web site for details www.leadershiphand.com/resources.
4. Reprint Permission This is a copyrighted publication. You are welcome to reprint an issue on a non-exclusive basis provided you:
5. Subscribe • Privacy Click here to subscribe. To unsubscribe click on the link below. We value your privacy. We never redistribute, rent or sell your information to anyone or any entity. We
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imagined.
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© Copyright 2004, Hand Associates and Beth Hand • All Rights Reserved Hand
Associates, LLC Leadership
Coaching & Development |
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