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Autumn 2019 Buffalo Business 17 stakeholders. Friedman argued that even donations to charity and other corporate social responsibility initiatives are unethi- cal, as they amount to "stealing" resources that rightfully belong to company stock- holders. He suggested that if stockholders wish to donate their profits themselves, that is their right, but management has no mandate to give away their money. The stakeholder approach, on the other hand, argues that customers, employ- ees and communities are not only valuable stakeholders in and of themselves, but are also the best route through which to grow stockholder value. This approach is exem- plified by a concept called servant leader- ship, in which leaders see themselves as servants of these stakeholders, working through them to grow their organization by listening, partnering and developing. Detractors claim that serving stakeholders and working to help employees (rather than coercing or simply ordering them) wastes vital resources and inefficiently pursues profit. However, servant leadership the- ory instead proposes that organizational success and service to stakeholders form a mutually reinforcing spiral: Serving stake- holders contributes to firm growth, and more successful organizations can better serve stakeholders. Quantitative researchers have at- tempted to resolve this conflict, and their results may surprise you. They consistent- ly find that CEOs who broadly prioritize stakeholders in addition to profits tend to have more profitable companies than CEOs who prioritize profits alone. Teams led by servant leaders outperform other teams in such areas as motivation, engagement and commitment. And my own research has un- covered evidence that servant leadership creates a trickle-down effect, such that man- agers and employees led by servant leaders become servant leaders themselves. We may never completely agree on what is or isn't ethical in business or in life What are business ethics? Most people answer, "Doing what is right," but that fails to tell us exactly what is right—and what is wrong. more generally. But what shouldn't be so subjective is what approach to ethics is in the best interest of an organization. Here, the answer for leaders is clear: By priori- tizing employees, customers and commu- nities, leaders build stronger teams and organizations—and stronger societies. That's the promise of servant leadership. x Photo: Tom Wolf