Maintaining True North (Strong and Free)

I’m not sure which headline most ignited my rage. Was it, “US suspends all military aid to Ukraine in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row,” or “Trump’s new tariffs are his most extreme ever.” The former is an about face on the Budapest Memorandum; the latter violates the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States—which was signed by Trump during his first term in office. Whichever it was that set me off, by the time I’d finished my coffee this morning, I was, as my grandmother used to say, ‘spitting feathers.’

But it’s been done again and again by writers far more qualified than me. Instead, I’m keen to address the question on the minds of millions of entrepreneurs and business leaders: What are we to do in response?

Harness Your Rage

During the early days of the COVID pandemic, we wrote a series of articles under the theme ‘emerge stronger.’ (We’ve continued to write the occasional post under that same theme.) Some of the lessons we attempted to share then are equally valuable now. Here are five things you should be thinking about as you decide how to respond to the mayhem wrought by the Trump administration—particularly if you’re operating a business or leading an organization in Canada.

Write a Three-Week Strategic Plan

For years now, we’ve been saying that the world is changing too fast for strategy to be left for annual (or biennial) retreats. Strategy today must be a discipline of management. 

Accelerate on Your Purpose Journey

While the social, moral, and ecological case for a paradigm shift to purpose-led business is both clear and global, the business case must be established case-by-case, with respect to local markets, cultures, sectors, and bio-regions. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a purpose-led business, but there are some manageable first steps that any leader can take. Check out this post on embedding purpose in your work—which, it turns out, offers the same advice we give to those striving to build resilience. (Our 2021 Guide to Success in the Next Economy is linked from that post.)

Lead from the Values that Unite Us

In effective, values-led organizations, all staff are empowered to make all their decisions through a values lens. Real, validated, societally supportive values. Trust, compassion, stability, and hope give shape to healthy relationships, organizations, and societies. When these begin to crumble, the slide toward fracture and cruelty is all too predictable and fast. Check out this post on values that we wrote after the January 6 riots in Washington DC, and this one on Breathing Life Into Your Values.

Face Challenge Together in Community

Stakeholder engagement is not a new practice; it’s fundamental to best practices in public relations, community engagement, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). What we’ve learned, though, is that companies fare better if they’re open and consultative about what they elect to do. There’s a profound body of work in this field, but this post speaks to some of the first steps you might consider.

Speak up, dammit!

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Frequently wrongly attributed to Edmund Burke, this quote more likely came from John Stuart Mill, during an address at St Andrews in 1867—coincidentally the year of Canada’s independence. Now is not the time to hesitate, dither, or defer. In a recent post, we answered a relevant question ‘When Is It Time for CEOs to Speak Up?’ That time is now.

Whether with your colleagues, peers, trade association, or other platforms you occupy, your voice must be made to count. When the rule of law is threatened—internationally and domestically, nothing less than democracy is at stake. Your business enjoys opportunities and success because it operates in a stable, rules-based system. When those rules collapse, businesses, sectors, and economies follow. Alarmist? If you think so, I suggest you go back and read history. 

Do you need help to maintain resilience through these mounting crises? For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping leaders and their organizations to embrace purpose, deepen resilience, and drive success. Get in touch.