The world is changing rapidly, and as a leader you may be forced to take a position on issues that are not directly related to the mission of your company, and increasingly “no comment” is no longer an option. On Monday, Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency startup Coinbase, took his stand.The whole release is worth reading, but this excerpt does a good job summarizing:[QUOTE]Everyone is asking the question about how companies should engage in broader societal issues during these difficult times, while keeping their teams united and focused on the mission. Coinbase has had its own challenges here, including employee walkouts. I decided to share publicly how I’m addressing this in case it helps others navigate a path through these challenging times.In short, I want Coinbase to be laser focused on achieving its mission, because I believe that this is the way that we can have the biggest impact on the world. We will do this by playing as a championship team, focus on building, and being transparent about what our mission is and isn’t. [ENDQUOTE]First off, the sentence “Coinbase has had its own challenges here, including employee walkouts” gives you a very real sense of what life has been like for him as a leader recently. In the last 15 years running companies I dealt with many cultural crises, including employees banding together to deliver a message to leadership, and I remember the intense hurt that accompanied those situations. As a leader you want your team to feel fulfilled at work, and criticism to the contrary can cut like a very personal knife.On the other hand, I also understand the pain felt by the employees. People are passionate about social issues like never before, and they want their company to support what they often see as a moral imperative. Passionate employees give everything they have to their company, and they are well within their rights to demand everything of their leaders.But this creates an impossible situation for the leader. As Armstrong put it:[QUOTE] while I think these efforts are well intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division. [ENDQUOTE]He’s right. Most startups don’t starve from a lack of things to do, they drown from too many. The most important asset you have at any company is your focus and that of your team, and at Coinbase it’s Armstrong’s primary responsibility to jealously guard that focus. Only by saying “no” to many worthy causes can a team fully say yes to the one thing at which they can be extraordinary (never mind the internal division that it could cause, which is also real). The risk of allowing your company to adopt any new issue as your own is significant, let alone all of the social issues that are important (in competing ways) to members of your team.But there’s significant risk in taking the stand he did, too. By stating explicitly that by virtue of them working at Coinbase employees agree not to “debate causes or political candidates internally, expect the company to represent our personal beliefs externally, or take on activism outside of our core mission at work,” Armstrong runs the risk of communicating to his employees that only their productivity, not themselves, are welcome at the company. There’s a razor thin line between “stay focused,” and “shut up and dribble” (on this point I read Armstrong’s blog post as iffy, but it almost doesn’t matter because no matter what a leader says, some people will find fault in it).There’s no right answer to the situation in which many leaders currently find themselves. Patagonia is subject to the same external macro factors, and did the calculus differently. They made the bet that supporting a particular political agenda would galvanize their customers and employees alike, and in doing so risked alienating large swaths of them, and also took on additional burden that they felt they could manage.Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Such are the decisions of leadership.A mentor of mine, when I was first becoming a CEO, told me that if I wasn’t willing to choose between a terrible option and a life threatening option, I shouldn’t be a CEO. What we’re seeing today is leadership at its most beautiful and its most heartbreaking. Pressed into making a call by a righteous anger not of his making, Armstrong had to make a call, knowing that whatever he did would hurt a part of his company. Knowing that doing so would hurt real people, whose souls were clearly already in pain.And (probably) knowing he would catch hell for it.The call Armstrong made is almost incidental in my view (and will of course be spun into something it isn’t anyway). Different situations call for different decisions, and only he knows all the factors. But I see what went into making that call, and I applaud him for doing the hard thing unwaveringly, and communicating it clearly.Armstrong again:[QUOTE] I recognize that our approach is not for everyone, and may be controversial. I know that many people may not agree, and some employees may resign. I also know that some of what I’ve written above will be misinterpreted, whether accidentally or on purpose. But I believe it’s the right approach for Coinbase that will set us up for success long term, and I would rather be honest and transparent about that than equivocate and work in a company that is not aligned [ENDQUOTE].THE UTILITY OF A TRANSCENDENT PURPOSELeaders everywhere are being asked to lead through chaotic times right now, with unprecedented opportunities for social impact, or for distraction. The old tools of leadership are insufficient for today’s world.I remember simpler times when it was enough to simply get people on the same page. When the goal of a mission was functional alignment and nothing more. A few companies were called “purpose-driven” and stood out as leaders and innovators, the types of companies you moved across the country to work for. As rare as leprechauns.But as was illustrated this week with Coinbase, leaders today no longer have the luxury of opting out. “No comment” is itself, increasingly, the most tone deaf of all comments. And in this world, the best — and perhaps, in the end, only — defense against the many forces competing for the hearts and minds of a team, is purpose. Only a purpose so deep and meaningful that it causes people to willingly put their differences aside in its service (be they political, social, racial or otherwise), can effectively bring people together.Coinbase’s mission is “to create an open financial system for the world.” The words are compelling, and will play a critical role in Coinbase’s future moving forward. But the words are only a reflection of the leader saying them — what matters more is the way that Brian took a stand. What matters most are his actions moving forward, and that they’re consistent with his words, and his deepest values. Even when it’s messy as hell.His stand won’t be for everyone, and it will most certainly not be for some. But sometimes a leader has to choose between the terrible and the life-threatening. And there’s a very human beauty to that Sophie’s Choice.I see you, Brian Armstrong.If you’re wrestling with your own version of this issue, I invite you to share here, to help us all navigate through this crazy, high stakes grey area of leadership.———From Second Mountain Startup, the weekly newsletter for purpose driven entrepreneurs. see hubwealthy.com/wealthy
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