I have seen many organisations claim that they can be considered as Servant Leadership organisations because they follow the Triple Bottom Line philosophy. This promoted me to dig a little deeper into this concept, and what I found amazed me.
It was John Elkington who postulated the idea of Triple bottom line in 1994. Soon it became a corporate slogan used by many to present their organisations in better light. They thought that latching onto the Triple bottom line concept will portray their sensitiveness to all the stakeholders, namely Shareholders (Profit), Customers, Employees and partners (People) and Environment (Planet). However, the concept soon became just another corporate jargon. Elkington himself realised the depths to which the concept deteriorated, and he decided to “recall” the concept. This is probably the first case of a recall of a management concept, though we are used to recall of products and cars and things like that. Elkington did this through an HBR article[1] where he admitted
But 25 years later, this radical goal has been largely forgotten, and “triple bottom line” thinking has been reduced to a mere accounting tool, a way of balancing tradeoffs instead of actually doing things differently.
Surprisingly, there are several organisations that still vouch for the Triple Bottom Line concept and proudly project that as their way of balancing results and relationships. Many organisations go to the extent of claiming to be Servant Leadership companies because they follow the Triple Bottom Line concept.
This is far from the truth. Of course we are concerned about the shareholders or investors, they bring in the much needed capital to keep the organisation running. Of course we love our customers because they pay us for our products and services. Of course we are concerned about the employees, they do what is required to keep our customers continue to give us business. Of course we take care of the environment out of true concern or out of necessity due to the laws of the land. But that does not make it Servant Leadership. As Jeroen Kraaijenbrink explains in his Forbes Article[2], making grand profit and not doing harm to employees and environment is a basic requirement.
The concept of Servant Leadership goes way beyond this narrow understanding of the Triple Bottom Line. I define a Servant Leader as
“A Servant Leader is one who invests in the life of another person to the extent that the other person becomes better, bigger, wiser, happier, healthier, wealthier and more famous than the leader himself/ herself”
This requires genuine concern and love for people, all people, not just our paying customers or employees. It requires one to have a higher purpose than generating wealth through the organisation. It requires that leaders use their Power to uplift others. It requires that organisations follow a set of values that will make the world a better place. It requires that leaders and organisations need to give up chasing success and pursue Significance. Power, Purpose, Values and Significance are the four tenets that differentiate Servant Leadership from the other good, bad and ugly forms of leadership. I had discussed these in an earlier blog.
So if you are still stuck on the Triple Bottom line concept, it is time to give your leadership philosophy a reboot. It is time to consider Servant Leadership.
[1] John Elkington: 25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s Why It’s Time to Rethink It. Harvard Business Review, June 25, 2018, Web accessed at https://hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it on 10th of Nov 2022.
[2] Jeroen Kraaijenbrink . What The 3Ps Of The Triple Bottom Line Really Mean. Forbes, Dec 10, 2019. Web accessed at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeroenkraaijenbrink/2019/12/10/what-the-3ps-of-the-triple-bottom-line-really-mean/?sh=6dc761935143 on 10th Nov 2022.
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Dr. Madana Kumar, PhD is the Servant Leadership Evangelist at Leadyne. You can connect with him here or contact him here
