Leadership Thought #330 – Real Joy Comes from Helping Others
Helping others is an essential part of life.
It’s too easy to get so caught up in our reality and forget about other people’s needs, especially those not directly in our social or professional circles. However, it’s been proven repeatedly that real joy comes from helping others, not just focusing on ourselves. Leaders are uniquely positioned to set a good example in this regard. It isn’t just a coincidence that the most philanthropic and community-involved companies tend to do better than their less-engaged peers on the business front. People want to know that you care about more than profit, especially your employees.
There comes a point in every successful businessperson’s life when they have more money than they need. There are several decisions that can be made at this point: continue to accumulate more personal wealth, invest some of this money back in the company, share the wealth with those who helped get you there, donate money to causes you care deeply about, and help those who are less fortunate. I purposefully left out buying more things and/or living a more grandiose lifestyle because there are countless studies/examples of how this only minimizes overall happiness. More is not always better. It can also end up being quite damaging to your psyche if taken to an extreme.
No one is ever successful or happy alone. Other people are a mirror of our actions. Businesses cannot exist without having beneficial relationships with their employees and customers. Thriving and vibrant communities engage at all levels of society and value everyone equally. Healthy families understand the importance of loving and supporting one another, especially when the going is hard. Meaningful friendships/relationships are always best when grounded in mutual respect and a genuine sense of caring for the other person. You are only ever content and fulfilled because of other people, not despite them. If you pay attention, you will notice a direct correlation between how you feel about yourself and how you treat others and their corresponding response. This energy, or the lack of it, is a palpable feeling in someone’s life. Businesses experience all of this on a grander scale.
Life may be about “give and take,” but taking too much only has adverse consequences for others and you. You may not feel it immediately, but it will catch up with you. For those of us who are of a religious bent, this is a special week. We acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice of a man who only ever had our best interests at heart. Even those who don’t share the faith appreciate how he lived his life and the values he espoused as a model for human behavior. Everyone should read the Sermon On The Mount (in the Bible) at least once and reflect on how these words can be applied to their life. It is through our feelings about things and our actions toward others that we find peace and contentment. Everything else is just a distraction.
