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"Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity will not survive."
-- the Dalai Lama
"The world is in your hands, now use it."
-- Phil Collins
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive."
-- Howard Thurman |
Looking for an inspiring and entertaining speaker for your organization or group?
My passion is helping others to discover their purpose and reach their potential. I would love to speak with your group about gratitude, strengths, optimism, leadership, vision, values, emotional intelligence and other development-related topics. For more information on how I can help your group, visit www.kathylight.com/speaking | |
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Saving the World
 I recently read an amazing book called Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference, by Tim Sanders. I was so moved by the message and the stories in the book, especially the closing story, that I decided to dedicate my January newsletter to a brief book review.
The basic premise of Saving the World at Work is that in corporate America, there is currently what Sanders calls a "Responsibility Revolution" brewing. This means people are no longer content to work for and invest in companies that just make a profit. They also want to know these companies are doing what's right for their employees, their communities and the earth.
Throughout the book, Sanders sites examples of individuals who single-handedly have raised issues that prompted significant positive changes in their organizations. Like Joyce LaValle, a regional sales director for Interface Inc., a Los Angeles-based carpet maker. In 1994, LaValle became concerned about the impact the carpet industry was having on the environment, and raised the issue with Interface's CEO, Ray Anderson. Through her influence, Anderson realized his company was a significant contributor to the destruction of the planet.
As a result, Anderson created a new environmental vision, and "Mission Zero", promising to make the company environmentally neutral by the year 2020.
Within the first twelve years, Interface diverted over 100 million pounds of carpet and related waste from landfills. The waste and energy use reduction programs produced the side benefit of saving the company over $300 million in the first five years.
All of this came from one person's courage to follow her heart and do the right thing.
This is just one of the many examples Sanders relays in the book. Not only are employees and investors demanding more corporate responsibility, companies who do good, like Interface, are commonly reaping financial benefits as a result. To prove this, Sanders notes several studies, including one conducted at the Haas School of Business at UC, Berkeley that examined multiyear data for almost all of the companies on the S&P 500. Its analysis confirmed a statistically significant relationship between socially responsible business and solid financial performance.
But the story in the book that moved me most was the story of an IT manager who made the realization he needed to be more connected with his employees, and literally saved a life because of it. This manager, "Steve," heard author Tim Sanders speak about the dangerous "high-tech/low-touch" management style in which managers connect with their employees only through email. Sanders told the audience that this leads to workplace depression, ill health, poor productivity and low morale, and that if they were employing this management style, they were bad managers.
A few days later, Steve emailed Sanders to let him know how he took the message to heart. Steve had been guilty of communicating only through email and offering praise only at annual performance reviews, even though all nine of his engineers were great workers and great people. He wanted Sanders' advice about what to do. Sanders advised Steve to take immediate action by thinking about the contributions each of his employees made to the company, and to him, and by telling them in person.
About a week later, Steve sent Sanders a note he will "never forget as long as [I] live." He had met with all of his nine engineers the very day of Sanders' suggestion, making one positive personal and one positive professional comment. Two days later, one of his engineers, "Lenny," arrived in Steve's cubicle and gave him a remarkable gift, an Xbox game system and a copy of the John Madden Football video game. Steve was thrilled and asked Lenny where he got the money for such a generous gift and why he gave it to him.
Lenny looked Steve in the eye and much to Steve's surprise said, "I sold my chrome-plated 9mm semiautomatic." Lenny, who had recently lost his mother and had no real friends at work or otherwise, had become increasingly lonely and depressed. He was very close to ending his life when Steve "freaked him out" by visiting him in person in his cubicle, and telling him how he slept better at night because Lenny turned in every project one day early, and that he admired Lenny's sense of humor over email and how it made the whole group laugh when times were stressful. But most importantly to Lenny, Steve said, "Lenny, I'm glad you came into my life."
That night, Lenny became afraid to do what he had been planning. The words, "Lenny, I'm glad you came into my life" kept ringing in his ears, and he knew he would no longer be able to go through with it. The next day he sold the gun and bought the Xbox for Steve, a gift he knew Steve wanted. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Lenny said, "Sir, in exchange for my life, my soul, this gift is for you."
It's incredible to me to think that any one of us literally has the opportunity to save someone's life every day, and even by something as simple as paying a heartfelt compliment. Those connections and expressions of gratitude are what make us feel most alive, and by making them we are not only positively impacting others, we are often saving ourselves as well.
So in this new year of new opportunity, what can you do to save the world? I plan to continue my efforts to take better care of the earth, and I also plan to show my appreciation and love as often as I can. I know I will enrich my own life by doing this. And maybe I'll save someone else's, too.
Happy New Year!
~ Kathy
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