40 WESTERN PALLET
Triple Bottom Line (Part 1)
Picture this: It’s Monday—just after 11 a.m. I knock on the door of Dad’s office as I walk in. He looks up and says, “Hey! What’s up?”
I had just taken over as sales manager when Randy, the previous guy, retired, and I had just finished running my first monthly sales check-in.
“Well, I really let them have it,” I said, sitting down and putting my feet up victoriously.
“Let who have what?” he said cautiously.
“The sales team,” I said. “I told them that revenue was down on our three biggest accounts, and if they didn’t get it together, I was going to have to start making cuts.”
“Seriously?!” he asked, shocked.
“Yeah. And trust me—they got the message!” I replied. “Why do you seem so shocked?”
“Well,” he replied, his tone shifting, “I’m just surprised that you framed it that way—threatening their jobs and all—especially since revenue isn’t actually down on those accounts.”
He paused, grasping for the right words, then continued.
“I thought we agreed you were going to have a chat to motivate the team to sell more units.”
Uh-oh. Maybe you were a bit overzealous, Kev.
“Well, right,” I stammered, “more units. That was the whole point. I mean, sure, the dollars are actually up. But units are down—which means margins are better. And if our units were back to the historical level, we’d be making a lot more profit. I mean, I know I said revenue to the team, but I meant units. And really, if you look at revenue as a function of units sold, projected revenue is down, right?”
I sat there smugly, feeling like I had won somehow. But then I noticed that he was just looking at me with that “coach look,” like I had just blown a wide-open layup on a fast break.
“What?” I said hesitantly.
He sighed and leaned back.
“Your team is anything but motivated right now,” he said. “In fact, they’re confused, frustrated, and demoralized—completely un-motivated.”
He paused for effect, then continued.
“Did you even offer to help—to coach them—maybe by talking through the accounts, conducting some root cause analysis to figure out why their units are down, and brainstorming strategies to get the sales back up?”
He gave me a look that said whatever he was about to say was really important.
“Listen, you think there’s one bottom line in business. There are three: people, purpose, and profit. As a leader—no matter how common it is—you never violate the first two in favor of the third.”
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The most successful leaders in modern business operate with a Triple Bottom Line mentality: people, purpose, and profit.
Traditionally, business has prioritized profit above all else, often to the detriment of people and purpose. A Triple Bottom Line mindset elevates people and purpose to at least an equal plane with the traditional bottom line (i.e., profit). At times, it might even require sacrificing profit for the sake of people and purpose.
But leadership experts agree:
“When you focus on people over profit, you end up being more profitable.” —Will Guidara
Food for Thought
When we focus only on traditional bottom-line results, or profit, we will inevitably leave something of great value on the table, which ultimately limits our impact and our effectiveness as leaders.
A Triple Bottom Line mentality redefines results.
So, what’s your bottom line?
WPM