Leadership and Change

The Kouses and Posner readings this week were about envisioning the future and taking action. Roddick, it seems, could have written the book on this. The Body Shop web site is so filled with issues around promoting change that their products have equal – not more - footing. The site’s “Values and Campaign” page reads: “The way we do business, the way we make products, the way we source ingredients; we're different because of our Values.” They also have a page devoted to their principles and policies. Roddick has been so successful in her enterprise most likely because of her personal passion for causes and making a difference. Kouses and Posner write, “finding something you truly believe in is the key to articulating a vision in the first place.1 And, “Organizations are most effective when a well-articulated and ambitious vision of the future exists.”2

Somehow I imagine that every Body Shop employee knows the mission, vision, and values of the company inside out. Csikszentmihalyi says in his book Good Business, “An ideal organization is one in which each worker’s potentialities find room for expression. You have to create an atmosphere in which people want to give their best.”3 In reading about the Body Shop, one imagines that this would be a company where people want to work. If workers are satisfied in their jobs, they will work harder and be more committed to the organization. Csikszentmihalyi says of leaders, “perhaps the most important distinguishing trait of visionary leaders is that they believe in a goal that benefits not only themselves, but others as well. It is such a vision that attracts the psychic energy of other people and makes them willing to work beyond the call of duty for the organization.”4

In discussing the “vision and soul” of organizations, Csikszentmihalyi quotes Roddick saying, “I love the relationship I have with my franchises. With my employees, who are my most treasured, loved friends. They are my extended family.”5 Clearly part of Roddick’s vision includes a vision of the Body Shop as an intimate, humane environment in which to work. Kouses and Posner write, “When leaders clearly communicate a shared vision of an organization, they ennoble those who work on its behalf. They elevate the human spirit.6 The authors contend that workers really want to hear about their own aspirations, not simply the leader’s vision. “They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled. The very best leaders understand that their key task is inspiring a shared vision not selling their own idiosyncratic view of the world.”7

Unquestionably Roddick is a leader that has walked the talk by infusing the Body Shop with social consciousness and building on that over thirty years. She is a leader that has demonstrated that you can do the right thing and make a difference in the world and still deliver the goods. Kouzes and Posner write, “Turning possibility thinking into an inspiring vision – an inspiring vision that is shared – that is the leader’s challenge.”8 Roddick’s advice for young business students: “Look for your passion. What makes you excited? What turns you on? Go towards companies that you really like, really admire…. What do you admire about them? Do an internship. Find organizations that move your spirit if you can… and have fun. When you spend 95% of your life in a work environment, it can’t be dour.”9

In his book Good Business, Csikszentmihalyi interviewed several dozen business leaders, including Roddick. He writes, “It is clear that what makes it possible for such leaders to be so focused in their work and so effective in advocating their vision is their genuine conviction that their efforts are helping to create a better world. It is because their message appeals to the soul, to the need we all have to connect with a greater purpose, that others are willing to follow their lead and find flow in their work.”10

As inspiring as it was to read about Anita Roddick and The Body Shop this week, I wondered, with the success of companies like The Body Shop, why aren’t more businesses embracing similar philosophies? James O’Toole had an answer to that question in his article “The Ideology of Comfort.” O’Toole explains that it is difficult to achieve change because when progressive-minded individuals want change, they “must force their will (their visions, beliefs, and values) on a larger group of haves who are deeply invested in the status quo and in the ideology on which it is predicated.”11 The “haves” (as opposed to the “have-lesses”) understand that change would undermine their ideology and upset their belief systems, and therefore resist. Corporate leaders have the most power to resist change. O’Toole writes,“the leader must be able to show that the proposed change is a necessary step towards progress as defined by the haves.”12 In other words, the idea for change will only be acceptable when the “haves” can take ownership and embrace said change. I also wondered about the potential for instilling social consciousness in businesses when the desire to make a difference wasn’t there at the very beginning, as it was in the foundation of The Body Shop.

Footnotes

1. Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007, 116.
2. Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007, 114.
3. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003, 107.
4. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003, 197.
5. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003, 149.
6. Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007, 121.
7. Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007, 117.
8. Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007, 106.
9. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003, 175.
10. Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003, 163.
11. O’Toole, J. “Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1995, 249.
12. O’Toole, J. “Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1995, 254.

References

Anita Roddick Website. “Take it Personally.” http://www.anitaroddick.com/

Body Shop Website (2008). “Mission statement,” website: www.thebodyshopinternational.com

Csikszentmihalyi, M. Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003.

Dennis, B., Neck, C.P., and Goldsby, M. (1998). “Body Shop International: An Exploration of Corporate Social Responsibility.” Management Decision, Vol. 36 No. 10. 649-653.

Kouses, J. and Posner, B. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2007.

Let’s Talk Business Network Website (2008). “Entrepreneur’s Hall of Fame: Anita Roddick.” http://www.ltbn.com/halloffame/Roddick.html

O’Toole, J. “Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1995.

Wikipedia Website (2008). Anita Roddick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick