A business leader’s duties span a broad spectrum, from negotiating contracts with new clients to working alongside your frontline staff when they need an extra set of hands. However, “doing it all” is not limited to your office’s four walls. Doing it all encompasses social responsibility.
In my position, I can be found in high-pressure meetings or sweeping floors at a school before the sun comes up. To outsiders, it may seem like this wide variety of tasks would be enough, but true leaders cannot stop there.
Memphis is a wonderful city, and I believe in it wholeheartedly. However, there are social and economic issues challenging it.
With many of these issues impacting business, we must have a seat at the table. Who better than professionals with leadership experience and connections to move Memphis forward?
We must make it a goal to work as hard from the outside in as we do from the inside out. By doing this, we become in tune with the issues we can help solve, ones that impact our team members and clients and, in turn, our businesses.
Leading inside your business is filled with comfort, security, and control. On the contrary, leading outside your business comes with a great deal of unknowns, because you are not at the helm. Instead of directing, you are influencing. Things are never as nimble when you are one of many voices.
Whether serving on boards, volunteering with a nonprofit, or participating in business or civic groups, you are helping to give your team a voice. Investing in the community in these ways will create an exponential impact. After all, the rising tide raises all boats.
If you know your team faces transportation issues that affect their personal and professional lives, understanding what the City of Memphis is doing to improve bus routes becomes a mandate. It allows you to have a better grasp of what your team faces every day, and it shows that you are truly invested in their professional and personal lives.
Click here to read the full article on Memphis Business Journal.