When workers and consumers prefer purpose-driven brands, leaders aim for the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit. This approach drives sustainable growth.
Unfortunately, it’s hardwired into many leaders’ mindsets that doing business is simply crushing the competition and making a lot of money.
Fortunately, we have amazing human beings and leaders like Jay Wilkinson, whose decades of experience, company, people, and culture testify to how doing more good and giving back to your community can promote and sustain your business growth.
I was fortunate to have him as a guest in episode 32 of the Best Places to Lead show. Jay Wilkinson is the founder and CEO of Firespring, with nearly 250 employees and thousands of clients in all 50 states and globally. His company became Nebraska’s first Certified B Corporation in 2014, and Inc. Magazine named it one of the “50 Best Workplaces.” Jay is also the co-founder of the Do More Good movement, which aims to educate and empower companies and business leaders to do more good for their communities.
I’m happy to share with you the top 3 business lessons I’ve learned from Jay Wilkinson, and with the many insights he unpacked, I’m sure you’ll find help pursuing the same righteous business path:
Business Lesson #1: When your people believe in you and understand your purpose, they will stand with you through thick and thin.
The first lesson is something for the books. When I stumbled upon Jay as a potential guest, I was already intrigued by how he bought back his company from his investors.
But wait until you hear the whole story—Jay Wilkinson’s investor-led Board of Directors fired him from his own company after he refused to lay off almost half of the organization to save cash and curb the downward trend of their business.
Jay stood up and disagreed. HE believed the cuts were not necessary.
What happened next forged the foundation of the culture that Jay and his people still uphold. His team of about 40 employees came up with a plan for each of them to take a 50% pay cut and, in addition, took paid deferrals to help Jay fight this battle. He bought out those investors and finally reclaimed his post as CEO of the company.
According to Jay, in just a year and a half, they were not only back in the game but extremely profitable. His people were paid back on their deferred compensation and their cut compensation.
Jay was humble enough to say he didn’t drive it. But it’s obvious that his people were inspired by his leadership and went out of their way to say: “We’re all in this together. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
Business Lesson #2: Abundance over scarcity mindset is the key to giving back more to your people and community.
It’s definitely an inspiring story, and worthy of emulation to have people standing by your side through challenging times in business.
Aside from egos getting in the way, it’s a mindset that there’s not enough for everyone and that we have to fight over resources that confine us to a scarcity mindset. This includes doubting the value of giving back and doing more good as an option for businesses.
Fortunately, the antidote is simple: a shift to the abundance mindset, where leaders become optimists. You become happy when other people achieve success. That you would see opportunities in the business with your competitor’s achievements.
This mindset shift is the key to unlocking the aspiration to serve and to share your resources with your people and the community.
Business Lesson #3: Pursuing a purpose-driven company must be a collective, concerted undertaking, embodied in the values of your people, and not just a leadership imposition.
Aside from setting your ego and scarcity mindset to the side, pursuing a purpose-driven company also requires everyone in your organization genuinely believes in your higher purpose. To work, this undertaking must be collective and not leadership-imposed.
This means your people must embody the purpose-driven values of your company, which also means attracting and retaining the right employees in your organization.
Values are inherent in each of us, so an organization’s values must come from somewhere other than your leadership team. As Jay Wilkinson puts it, “values created internally among the people that are part of an organization are what makes values strong, persistent, and something that will truly be embodied in the actions of every team member.”
Pursuing a purpose-driven business involves onboarding people aligned with your values and culture. As your culture flourishes, your organization will continue to attract the right values-aligned people.
About Best Places to Lead
Your company has the potential to be great. The leader’s responsibility is to unlock that potential – or doom it to mediocrity.
On the LIVE Best Places to Lead show, you’ll learn the hard-fought lessons from the front lines earned by business leaders who have already had their teeth bashed in and lived to tell about it. We’ll share the tips, tricks, mindsets, and frameworks that allow great leaders to lead differently.
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