How much do social issues affect your workplace?

Our reader poll today asks: How much do social issues affect your workplace?

• Significantly: We make major business decisions based on social issues 18.50%
• Somewhat: We act on major social issues that directly affect our business 39.00%
• Not much: Only in extreme cases do social issues affect our business actions 31.00%
• Not at all: Social issues have no place in our workplace 11.50%

Socially active companies. 60% of you report being significantly or somewhat active when it comes to tying business decisions to social issues. 40% are less likely to engage directly with social issues. It’s a challenging space to enter because by reacting to social issues, your company is taking a position. That position likely won’t make all stakeholders happy. Some employees and customers will be happy with your position and others won’t. And even for the ones you make happy, they’ll feel you haven’t gone far enough. These dynamics likely lead the 40% of you to opt out of dealing with those issues and keep a “work is for work” mindset and take a neutral approach. Here’s the challenge: we live in society and increasingly social policy is influenced by corporate positions. Corporate positions are influenced by employees and customers. And leadership means doing the right thing rather than the comfortable thing. So ask yourself – are you willing to step up and lead or are you okay passively sitting on the sidelines and avoiding controversy?

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.