The View From the Corner Office

I've been thinking a lot lately about leadership, both in the context of businesses and communities. At times the concept makes me crazy, because many business leaders I know won't get involved in community leadership as they lack the patience to try to drive consensus. In truth when a friend suggested that I run for the legislature, I rolled my eyes and made some comment about not having the time to devote; this from the guy that drives corporate civic involvement home as being so important. This really got me going on an internal dialogue about what I have personally done in my community, and the importance of contributions, large and small.

It may surprise some of you to know that at one point in my life I was a registered Girl Scout. When my children (all girls) were younger my wife got involved as their Brownie Leader and later Junior Scout leader. I don't remember exactly what happened, but my wife needed to give up the leadership role and no other mothers from the group stepped up to take on the job. Faced with the choice of letting the troop dissolve or taking it on myself, I talked another father into co-leading the troop with me. To make a long story short the state and national scouting organization didn't know what to do with two men from Missoula, Montana who wanted to be Girl Scout Troop Leaders. After we got over the hurdles of ulterior motives of an unsavory kind we got down to making it happen and I had to become a Girls Scout to do it.

I had no idea what I had taken on. When I agreed to this responsibility I really had to juggle being a scout leader with growing my practice and finding time for myself and my wife. Interestingly this troop led by dads became the largest and most active in Missoula and everybody had a blast. It also ate a bunch of time. But to the positive it stands as one of the greatest leadership learning experiences of my life. I had to plan the impossible schedule, manage the unmanageable (thirty pre-teen girls) and organize an untrained sales team (contrary to popular belief cookies don't just sell themselves).

There is a family moral here that may well become an entirely different Blog post, but it's not the point of this one. While the time I spent helping set up wall tents for winter camping, teaching wood working, fire building, compass reading, outdoor cooking skills, knot tying and the like didn't contribute to the bottom line of my practice, it profoundly shaped my way of thinking about my work , community, civic commitment and the obligation to participate on a 24/7 basis. Giving back as a Girl Scout Leader challenged me to innovate. Along the way I rattled the cage of a longstanding institution, and in a very small way, advanced the cause of equality of the sexes. The process showed me the value of challenging conventions constructively to help people and organizations grow. Perhaps more importantly volunteering my time gave me a refreshed view of the real value of time.

Everything we do every minute of every day matters. What we do can move society and the people around us forward. Even our inaction matters. By doing nothing, we become part of the roadblock that makes up the status quo. In an era of streamlining and doing more with less, giving back gets pushed to one of the lower priorities for all of us. Especially in companies where time is money, corporate giving and community involvement seem like diversions from efficiency. In the interest of the bottom line they become a seemingly easy line item to cut. However it's times like these when charitable giving and community involvement become the most important. When times get tough, hours long, and staff short, the soul of a company gets cut in the interest of the bottom line and nobody will notice until it's too late to revive.

As federal and state budgets decline, non-profit organizations, not surprisingly end up having to do more with less and rely more heavily on private sector funding. Just as stable funding sources dwindle, the need for programs goes up. How do we promote the health of our society without promoting a level of equity in our communities? This remains a vicious circle that never ends, and at some level we all feel it. Whether it's the phone calls at dinner time asking for a donation, a massive increase in non-profit solicitation mailings or endless invitations to this gala event or that auction, at some point we all want to crawl in a hole and just not respond. That doesn't solve the problem either, individually or corporately. We must be part of the solution at some level. We as individual must allocate limited resources, and as corporate leaders we must not only do that we have to look at a public view of our organization. Even if we avoid or put off making a decision to help or be involved we make one; the decision to stay on the sidelines and not participate in society.

Despite the economic climate, corporate citizenship and charitable giving has a place. It says as much about the company as the quality of the services or products it offers. I find corporate citizenship and charitable giving, even when it's not publically recognized, builds a loyalty that transcends price and direct competition. People want to do business with companies that they trust and believe have a soul. Once you have these values fully integrated in the fabric of the company you would no more get rid of them than you would the sign on the door. Without these values the company identity vanishes.

At ALPS Corporate Citizenship and Charitable giving stand as one of the five pillars of our strategic plan. We encourage employees to volunteer their time (both on and off the clock) through our community involvement program. As a company we also give of our time collectively for various events. We provide a corporate match for our employees' private donations. ALPS also commits a percentage of its annual profits to charitable and community causes as determined by our senior management or our Charitable Giving Committee.

I have found that serving our community and serving our clients are not mutually exclusive activities. In truth, being engaged in our community helps us stay connected and creative. It keeps the staff motivated and engaged no matter what the daily crisis in the office might be. It also helps us attract people who care about people, which ultimately translates into caring about the integrity of our product and the level of service we provide to our clients.

I am proud of the difference ALPS has made over the years in the lives of people I will likely never know. In the end it is not about recognition, but rather peace of mind and soul. For me, it's about ALPS, to borrow from the Girl Scouts, leaving this "camp site" a cleaner and better place than we found it.

I look around Missoula and ALPS doesn't stand alone in this philosophy. A number of other companies, large and small step up every day to make a difference, however small. We need to get everybody on board for the benefit of their customers, the community and most of all their employees. Community involved employees have energy and drive businesses to success, which in turn drives the local economy, etc. In the end everybody wins.

Author’s Note: I want to give special recognition to Laura Churchman from ALPS marketing team who inspired this blog by laughing at my girl scout leadership story and prompting me with ideas for content that really made this blog post what it is - really important for society.