Ten Reasons to be Working for Good

Many of us aspire and dedicate ourselves to Working for Good – making the world a better place through our work. The essence of Working for Good is a calling, a sense of passion and purpose that stirs us to action from deep inside. It is based on the belief that what we do matters, that we can make a difference—for ourselves, others, and the world.

In my pursuit and practice of Working for Good over the past three decades, I’ve found that how we work is as, if not more, important than what we do. We can work in a green business, a social service organization, or some other endeavor focused on making the world a better place, but if we treat others and ourselves with disregard or disrespect in the process, we end up creating something far short of our intention. The process is the product. When we align the way we work with our values and our intention to make the world a better place, we create something truly profound.

Here are some of the benefits of aligning our values with our intentions and actions through our work and reasons for cultivating the skills of Working for Good.

1. Generates meaning and purpose: Work constitutes the lion share of our waking, active time. When we work to realize something noble and larger than ourselves (like the greater good) in alignment with our values in ways that develop ourselves and others, life is rich with meaning and purpose. Getting out of bed in the morning is a joy!

2. Fosters a sense of wholeness: When our values, intentions, and actions are aligned and integrated, we feel whole, rather than fragmented. Wholeness fosters ease, peace of mind, and overall health and well-being.

3. Generates optimism, hope, creativity, innovation, and confident action: Having a sense of purpose and meaning, and feeling whole and congruent, fosters a positive outlook. Optimism and hope are catalysts for creativity, innovation, and confidence to experiment and energy to implement.

4. Engage, inspire, and energize others: When we work this way, we become a beacon and a model for others. When our companies are aligned in this way, they activate their stakeholders (customers, employees, vendors, investors, communities, etc) to share vision and sense of purpose, and to feel connected and aligned with you and your company, essentially co-creating your business.

5. Fosters collaboration: The sense of shared purpose, the trust built from alignment between values and action, and the energy of optimism and creativity create the conditions for true collaboration and co-creation.

6. Creates resilience: When the going gets tough the relationships built upon these foundations create resilience to adapt to external and internal challenges, and the courage to take risks together.

7. Creates healthy companies with healthy people: The result of all of this is a healthy “community” organized around your company, populated by healthy people who are committed to each other and to the common endeavor – fulfilling shared purpose (including advancing the mission of your business).

8. Makes your business a force for social and environmental change: With service to the greater good as part of the core purpose of your company, and an energized ecosystem of stakeholders, including other companies Working for Good, your business becomes a powerful force for positive change.

9. Meets marketplace demand: Since people (as customers, employees, community members, and even investors) increasingly expect companies to serve society and to actively engage in addressing pressing social and environmental issues, Working for Good is a powerful positioning strategy – as long as it is authentically embodied.

10. Fun and fulfilling: Building and working in a purpose driven company, with an energized ecosystem of stakeholders, making a positive difference, while generating wealth is great fun and tremendously rewarding. And you can be proud to tell your kids what you do for a living and perhaps make a real difference for their future.