The Socially Responsible Barber

An excerpt from Chad’s book “Thinking Aloud: Reflections on Ethical Leadership”. We hope you enjoy the essay – and perhaps introduce the questions below as a way to start conversations with your teammates. – ELA Team

Get a free PDF version of Chad’s Book, “Thinking Aloud” now at https://ethinact.com/thinking-aloud/.

The Socially Responsible Barber

I am basically a bald guy.  This is a revelation only to me – the expansion of my forehead has been steady and entirely visible to all.  Still, the power of denial is strong.  It is undeniably chilly up there these days.

The darkest irony: less hair necessitates more haircuts.  If I don’t keep it neatly trimmed, I end up looking like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss.[1]  It is fortunate, then, that I am very fond of my barber, Greg.  His technical skills are excellent, but more importantly, he’s a pleasure to see every few weeks, and a source of informed opinion on a wide range of topics.

Enough about me

This is not a shameless plug for Greg (and I’d rather not think about plugs in my sensitive state).[2]  Rather, Greg and I have been discussing – you guessed it – ethical leadership during our increasingly-frequent meetings.  Last time, Greg raised some interesting questions.  Essentially, he wanted to know whether all this social responsibility stuff might be of any value to him, a self-employed barber.  How could his extremely small business profitably apply the principles we are developing and espousing?

As we have noted, I tend to think of social responsibility in terms of stakeholder relationships.  Specifically, the key questions concern how well sound ethical principles are embedded in the organization and the degree to which those principles guide an organization’s actions with respect to its stakeholders (those whom the organization touches).  Stakeholders include owners and shareholders, as well as employees, customers, vendors, partners, and the communities in which a company does business, including the natural environment.  The acme of social responsibility involves creative business strategies that improve relationships with those entities in ways which measurably benefit the business.  Can we sensibly apply this approach to a self-employed barber? The suspense is killing you, isn’t it?

Of course we can!  Stakeholder relationships and social responsibility become especially relevant as we look for ways to sustain and grow those very small businesses.  So as not to embarrass Greg, let’s consider how a hypothetical colleague, Sandy the Stylist, might grow her business.

The stylist and stakeholder relationships

Sandy is self-employed, renting space from a salon.  She shares walk-in business and does her turn at the chores, but otherwise is on her own.  As we shall see, Sandy has some opportunities to invest in social responsibility in ways that pay off.  We shall begin with the obvious stakeholder, the customer.  There are many opportunities to explore:

• The experience of a haircut goes well beyond the haircut itself.  Are Sandy’s salon surroundings appealing to her target customer?  To her actual customers?  How well does Sandy know what her customers want, and what they merely tolerate?  Does she try to enhance their experiences?
• Lots of people have very personal relationships with barbers.  Are they handled with mutual trust?   Appropriate discretion?  Genuine concern?
• Conflicts and problems are sure to arise.  Does Sandy have clear, fair policies for situations like no-shows, or work that is not satisfactory?  If handled properly, an error can be an occasion for building, rather than damaging, a customer relationship.

More generally, Sandy can capture the business value of her efforts through improved customer satisfaction, retention and referrals.  These are easily measured, and they are the keys to her business.  In fact, as Sandy builds stronger relationships with customers, she should call on them to give her candid feedback to help her continue to improve her business.

While Sandy doesn’t have employees, she does have vendors, including product suppliers and the salon owner from whom she rents space.  She both cooperates and competes with that owner and with her other salon-mates.  Basic rules of fairness should govern these relationships, but there might also be some written terms to assure clarity and mutual understanding.  When problems or tensions arise, there should be candid, constructive conversations to address and resolve them.  Does Sandy take the lead in resolving conflicts and finding win-win solutions to problems?  Do Sandy and her salon owner have a clear understanding – in writing – about how revenues and costs are divided?

Environmental responsibility

The environment as a stakeholder is a hot topic, for good reasons.  Sandy may have considerable opportunities to green up her practice:

• Selecting and using environmentally friendly products – not necessarily the highly-hyped ones.  There are many green options in health and beauty products.
• Reducing waste, perhaps by sharing perishable products with salon-mates or simply by minding consumption.
• Using bulk products or those that feature environmentally friendly packaging.
• Advising customers of ways to “go green” in their health and beauty regimens.

Sandy can probably recoup the cost of her efforts simply by reducing waste.  She can also market her services to customers who truly care about the environment.

We can all take time to support the community, but for someone in Sandy’s position, time is truly money.  Getting involved in community activities that are of interest to her will yield networking opportunities to grow her business.  She can make charitable contributions that result in marketing exposure (such as sponsoring a blog on commercially-savvy social responsibility).  She can spend some of that chair time sharing worthy events of interest to her customers.  She might even use her Website to highlight worthy social causes or upcoming events of interest to her customers.  Low cost stuff, with the potential for reasonably high impact.

My point should be obvious by now: almost anyone in business can find ways to integrate socially responsible practices into their business, in ways that will pay off commercially while they benefit society.  It isn’t about becoming a paragon of virtue.  It is about creativity and commitment to ongoing improvement.

Conversation Starters:

Even the smallest businesses can benefit from a thoughtful commitment to social responsibility.

• Do you think it’s more difficult for a self-employed stylist (or other small business) or a large company to operate in a socially responsible manner?
• Who are the stakeholders in your business or organization and how do you invest in them? Does it pay off?
• Can you think of new ideas for you or your company to do more in the realm of social responsibility that also serves the bottom line?

At Ethical Leaders in Action we believe that most, if not all people, can develop themselves to play leadership roles in many different spheres both large and small. The foundation of this development process is a short but powerful list of virtues which can be developed and improved through conscious effort. For more information feel free to take the Virtues of Ethical Leadership Self Inventory (VELSI) which breaks these virtues down into features that can be individually developed. The results of the VELSI come with a quick reference guide to help you understand how the virtues and their individual features fit together. https://ethinact.com/velsi/

See a list of other posts in this series at Blog Post Series

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