Imagine a corporate culture where giving gives back
It has felt like Christmas all week as I handed out copies of my new book to workshop participants, book launch attendees and clients. There is a huge surge of oxytocin in being generous and giving. Peter Munday of Lennock Volkswagen calls it the Feel Good Factor.
In my latest leadership podcast interview, I spoke with Andrew Sykes of RSM. Their firm has an awesome integrated approach to charity and corporate social responsibility. In the interview he explains how they surveyed the staff and discovered just how many staff donate time, money and expertise to various charities. It is in the hundreds of thousands in Canberra alone. Listen to the podcast interview here.
Why give? There is definitely the oxytocin Feel Good Factor. It feels good to do good.
Leadership principles for doing good
In their book, An Everyone Culture, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey explain that staff leave organisations for two reasons:
1. Lack of meaningful purpose
2. Not enough opportunity to grow
Organisations like RSM and Konica Minolta have worked out that these two things can be woven in to an organisation’s central business functions. Listen to my podcast interview with Dr David Cooke of Konica Minolta on his extensive integrated approach to corporate social responsibility here.
Andrew’s advice to business is to make Social Agenda part of the company’s DNA. Build in systems to capture staff’s charitable interests, create policies and plans to release people to volunteer, build partnerships with not for profit organisations so that staff can contribute in meaningful ways.
We are grateful and honoured to have Andrew Sykes as one of our Table Hosts at our Edge of Leadership event in March 2017.
As an individual, giving is something we are hardwired for. We know the sweet joy of generosity.
And yet sometimes life gets in the way. Or gets hard. Or busy. And we lose the natural fullness of our heart and giving fades from our primary concern. We are diminished by our preoccupations.
Giving is an elixir we can always turn to. It need not be money. It can be a good deed, a kind word, a thank you, or a hug.
I want to say THANK YOU - to you. For reading, for reflecting, for reaching to be a better human being, and thus make the world a little better.
How do you experience giving each day? How could you enhance your giving experiences?
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Related Articles:
How to develop a motto for your culture
Discover how giving is a 3-way gain for you and your staff
Employee engagement and experience: here's something else better
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About the author, Canberra leadership expert Zoë Routh:
Zoë Routh is one of Australia’s leading experts on people stuff - the stuff that gets in our way of producing results, and the stuff that lights us up. She works with the growers, makers, builders to make people stuff fun and practical.
Zoë is the author of four books: Composure - How centered leaders make the biggest impact, Moments - Leadership when it matters most, Loyalty - Stop unwanted staff turnover, boost engagement, and build lifelong advocates, and People Stuff - Beyond Personalities: An advanced handbook for leadership. People Stuff was awarded Book of the Year 2020 by the Smart WFM Australian Business Book Awards.
Zoë is also the producer of The Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast.