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Serving for Success

Guest post by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: The elements of business success go far beyond simple bottom line calculations. Success comes from an attitude and focus on serving others, not just our balance sheets.

Serving for Success

For decades we've measured corporate success based on bottom-line dollars and cents. If we are profitable we are successful. Every decision we made in our corporate world, or our small business endeavor, was based on how something impacted our bottom line. That's a status quo measurement that's being challenged in today's world. There's a growing movement to focus not only on the profit we make, but also on the good we do in our world.

Many of my left-brained peers scoff at the idea that something as soft and immeasurable as 'goodness' could be important to the success of any business. in my humble opinion, they couldn't be more wrong.

The status quo focus on profit, short-term, now now now, me me me, is giving way to a focus on the longer-term impact a business has on our world. Being "good" to our communities, our customers, our partners and our environment is more important than many recognize.

I read an article last week that goes a long way toward proving the reality of this shift. Why Betterness is Good Business shares all the factual evidence and statistics even the most left-brained thinker needs to show that a focus on 'goodness' has an incredible impact on our business success. I won't share all those numbers here. You can read the article to gather the facts. I guarantee you, you'll be amazed by the statistics you read. By the way, the article isn't in some touchy-feely management blog. It's on Harvard Business Review - a definitive bastion for left-brained thinkers.

We've all seen the impact that the traditional profit-at-any-cost focus has had on our economy. Just look at Wall Street. I know that was an easy target. But it does make my point, which is that business success is less related to a focus on the bottom line than it is to a focus on serving our markets. Wall Street wasn't serving their markets, their customers or the economy as a whole. They were serving themselves and their own bottom lines and big bonuses. Just look at how that turned out.

I'm not saying that we turn all of our businesses into nonprofit operations. I am saying that the elements of business success go far beyond simple bottom line calculations. In today's world, success comes from an attitude and focus on serving others, not just our balance sheets.

Sometimes we serve for a fee. Sometimes we serve free of charge because it's the right thing to do. sometimes we make a decision that's more about serving others than it is about our own bottom line. The more we focus on serving, on doing the right thing at the right time regardless of its impact on our business - the more successful we will be.

It really is that simple. So why do we make it so difficult?

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Article Tags: business growth strategy, Challenge the status quo, Defy Gravity, executive leadership, success



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