Recommendations for Business Leaders During Rising Authoritarianism
He’s got the whole world in his hand.
After the response to our last post “Where has leadership gone?” it became clear that more was needed on the subject that took into account the reality we are currently facing. What follows is by no means an exhaustive list, but a set of recommendations for leaders who do really want to lead during this time.
Protect your organizational values and ethics
Stand firm on your organization's core values and ethical principles. Create clear internal policies and external communication (where safe for your people and organization) that reinforce human rights, dignity, and ethical conduct regardless of external pressures. If you are not able to make public-facing statements because of the possibility of retaliation, it’s vital to communication what trade offs are being made to your internal stakeholders.
Prioritize stakeholder well-being
Focus on protecting employees, customers, and communities. This may include creating safe spaces for dialogue, providing resources for marginalized groups, and ensuring psychological safety within your organization. There will be extra pressure on psychological safety inside your organization because so many people do not feel that safety in their communities right now. Your workplace can become a refuge - a place where your teams know they will be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their identity. This is hard work, requires consistent education and reinforcement, but is essential if you are asking people to work hard and productively during the rise of authoritarianism.
Build diverse and inclusive leadership teams
Diverse perspectives are crucial for navigating complex socio-political environments. Ensure your leadership team represents different backgrounds, identities, and viewpoints. Make sure you have methods in place for hearing from those different perspectives and a clear framework for courageous decision-making.
Cultivate transparent governance practices within your organization
Model the transparent and fair governance values that may be under threat externally by enabling participatory decision-making, transparency, and accountability within your organization.
Engage in responsible advocacy
Consider how your business can responsibly advocate for democratic principles and human rights through industry associations, business coalitions, and careful public positioning. This requires carefully weighing some very difficult trade-offs along the way. Ensure that when you are making a decision around advocacy, you have a process to do a 360 review of stakeholder impact before moving forward to mitigate the changes for harm.
Develop scenario planning and resilience strategies
Prepare for various political scenarios and build organizational resilience. This includes financial contingency planning, supply chain diversification, and crisis response protocols. Our friends at the organizational design firm August Public call this “dilemma testing,” an essential part of staying ahead in critical decision-making.
Foster media literacy and critical thinking
Help your teams navigate disinformation by promoting critical thinking skills and media literacy throughout your organization.
Support independent civil society
Consider how your business can appropriately support independent civic institutions, journalism, and community organizations that serve as counterbalances to authoritarianism. Look for opportunities in the community local to your offices specifically, where your participation may have the greatest direct impact.
Balance compliance with integrity
While businesses must comply with local laws, now is the time to develop thoughtful frameworks for responding when laws or government demands conflict with human rights or organizational values. A widely-cited global resource is the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct which can be downloaded here.
Document and learn from history
Study how businesses have responded to authoritarian movements in the past and apply those lessons to your context. Our next post will offer some examples and cautionary tales.
Our final recommendation would be to communicate as much as possible with other business leaders. Share successes and failures and support one another. This is a tremendously challenging time, and at the end of the day you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror.
