Walmart CEO’s Servant Leadership Starts to Give Teeth to the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation — CommPRO.biz

In response to the El Paso mass shooting (and too many others), Doug McMillon, Walmart’s CEO, announced that their stores would stop selling ammunition used for handguns and military-style weapons, as well as stop selling handguns completely and “discourage” people from carrying weapons in their stores, whether or not the state allowed “open carry.” McMillon also called for a debate about reinstituting the assault-weapons ban and suggested research on sources and solutions to gun violence.

To be sure, McMillon could have gone further, but his new policies enable Walmart to be a leader in developing more responsible processes around gun control, which is arguably his most effective personal tool to prevent gun violence. McMillon’s actions are an example of the power of servant leadership to change the world.

We are in urgent need of more servant-leaders. Leaders who “serve the well-being of people and the communities to which they belong.” Leaders, whose first impulse is to serve our collective good, will ensure our future. Corporations who have long pursued profits as best practice are waking up to their responsibilities to stakeholders other than their own bank accounts and those of their shareholders. Look at The Business Roundtable’s recently released Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. The list of signatories is a Who’s Who of the most influential corporate leadership of our time…