Leadership Means Doing Good in the World
The Individual & Organizational Imperative to DO GOOD
© Irene Becker, Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™  | Reach-Resonance-Results
3Q Leadership Blog

The individual and organizational imperative to DO GOOD in the world is clear. The implicit value of leaders who seek to serve, and organizations focused on creating value for all constituents is the only path to a better future. Companies that do not create true value for their employees, stakeholders, clients and communities will eventually wither and die. The secret to individual and organization success hinges on our ability to do good. Doing good means creating value for others.  Doing good means developing the Q skills the can help us use change, challenges and strengths to optimize potential, while developing the adaptability, agility and collaboration we need to survive and thrive.  Doing good means learning to adapt, learn and relearn while protecting the integrity and values that are fundamental to sustainability.  

Purpose equals profit on a multiplicity of levels. Our ability to feel good and do good is broken when the human substance, the noblest values that hold our world together are compromised.   Food was meant to make our body strong.  Life is a gift to be lived to its fullest.  Millions of people spend their intimate moments with a computer embracing virtual intimacy that is devoid of true connection.  It is easy, it is fast, but is it better than real human contact or connection? Some of stay in jobs that compromise our value system or to not engage our purpose and potential  because it is easier to stay with the devil we know than to move on and find a position that is in better alignment with our integrity…is it better?  Most of us live in apartments or houses that our great grandparents would have considered the lap of luxury, and yet too many of us have no real community and do not even know our next door neighbor.  We have more material comforts, but lack the emotional connection and sense of community and contribution that fills our soul. Is it better?   Corporate cultures are ailing; many are slowly dying as the focus on satisficing and on layers of bureaucracy that dim the human spirit makes finding meaning, value and purpose at work difficult for far too many.

If we do not engage our best self, do our best work and live our best life by enshrining our greatest values, our noblest ideals,  we create a bubble that will ultimately burst and plummet to the ground. Engaging our best selves, doing our best work and living our best lives means resetting the individual and organizational GPS; it means learning to USE change, challenges and strengths to develop the whole brain strengths, creativity, empowerment, initiative, collaboration and processes that help us LEAD forward by using the very changes and challenges we face as levers for the fire of human potential, the power of human values, the promise of great leadership.

If we do not reset the GPS and lead forward, we will fall backwards.  The business/material  and/or social success we have acquired will not break our fall, because we have compromised the seedbed of our humanity by forgetting that success and leadership must be predicated on our ability to DO good and create value for others.  Every great empire, fiefdom and corporation in recorded history has been destroyed by need, greed and ego.  The dark side of human character must be replaced with leaders, managers and collaborators who are focused on doing good, because greatness is truly a coefficient of goodness.

We can throw ourselves into the quicksand of negativity, envy, jealousy by deciding to forget the power that we each possess to make a positive contribution, to do something of value. But at the other side of darkness there is always light.  Light to recapture our power to create value and do good.  Light to engage our best self, do our best work and live our best life.  Power to make positive, value centered, soul centered choices.  Choices that will clear the fog of all that is wrong or the hail of militant mediocrity, greed or ego dominated choices that stand in the way of our living our best lives, doing our best work, developing our best organizations and communities.

Each small positive change, each bit of energy focused on doing good creates a ripple of value and integrity that in turn forms an ocean of hope and power for our self, our society and the world. If a butterfly in Tokyo can change the weather patterns in Los Angeles, what can our small actions each day, every way, have on our society and our world?   What would our personal and professional landscape look like if just 50% of us started each day with the intention to engage our best self, do our best work and live our best life? What would organizations look like if we they were focused on moving from cultures of satisficing to building learning and living environments that grow the trust, collaboration and potential of their people and constituents?

Each individual possesses the unique ability to make a positive difference, and leaders possess a titanic ability and responsibility to build the social, economic and intellectual capital that drives positive change, that creates well in the world. The fire of individual and organizational growth and well-being is not something we can touch, it is something we must feel and focus on; it is something we must build from top down with a sincere commitment to do good in the world.  Our greatest challenge and greatest strength lie in our ability to USE what is to create what can be; better selves, better leadership, better organizations, better communities.

More on Goodness Leadership?  YOU Betcha

Goodness to Greatness Leadership-7 Steps from Me to We
The New Leader
The Thriving Organization
What Does Leadership Really Mean?
Rising to the Challenge Before Us (post and video)
Leadership Means Building a Community of Purpose
Meaningful Work-Building a Management and Leadership Must
Ten Ways to Lead Forward in Times of Complexity and Change
Our Greatest Hope
The Secret to Peace and Prosperity

Guest Posts on Doing Good?  You Betcha
The Argument for Purpose Driven Business
Corporethics
Managing With a Conscience (Great Read Excerpt & Review)

I am committed to helping smart people and organizations use changes and challenges to optimize and catalyze their potential to communicate & LEAD FORWARD.  Use changes and challenges to improve communication, management, leadership…career success?  Yes!
Helping my clients build their 3Q Edge™ and develop the R-E-A-C-H™ that helps them lead forward smarter, faster and happier is what I do best!

Irene Becker | Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | Reach-Resonance-Results
Executive Coaching, Consulting, Training and Keynotes with a 3Q Edge™ 
Face to face and/or virtually by telephone, video conferencing or skype! 
irene@justcoachit.com  Twitter @justcoachit
Tel: (1) 416-671-4726   Skype: beckerirene