Being A Force For Good That Links Back To What You Do

Wider causes that link to your beliefs, provide you with a platform to demonstrate your skills. It also becomes proof of what you do.

It’s good to contribute and in some small way, show how you can help. 

It’s important to pay the bills, but also important to see where you can contribute. Your work and what you do can become the bridge that others need. 

What I am highlighting here is with the skillsets you have accumulated, if there is a cause you can get behind, you start to put your abilities to wider use. It’s evidence of what you do and you show how you do it.

The easiest thing is to find a wider societal effort and get behind a hashtag. It takes minutes to make a post on social media and then get on with your day. 

For many companies, if they want to win the hearts and empathy of others, wisdom chooses to treat it as a marketing tool. A false sense of solidarity doesn’t look good on anyone. 

Being seen as responsible doesn’t just mean wanting to heighten your own reputation, it’s about putting your skills, capabilities and experience to good use, plus just being a good person.

It’s been a few weeks since the StandWithChand event (read more about it here). 

What I have found is that Chandy’s cause around disability discrimination, harassment and difference has led me to read wider on this topic. More than anything, it’s to educate.

It also makes me realise that whilst raising my own awareness it also tunes into the values that I have and the areas that I believe in. 

For instance, Chandy stepping up and calling out disability discrimination shows someone who has a belief, is resilient, shows independence and whilst he has been knocked down (confidence, self-belief) he is always up for the fight.

For me, it’s not about being attached to a purpose, but the wider values I have. What it also demonstrated was a tangible way to put my efforts into practice when it comes to reaching out to others and bringing a wider community together. From the contacts in the press to assembling the generosity of others to walk together with Chandy on the hottest day of the year, became a way to put skills into good use.

When you acknowledge the signals and how you can support, you figure out what needs to be done. It could be to garner wider support, it could be signposting for lobbying/awareness, it could be places for new conversations, it could be to help ideas spread, it could be people who need to be taught.

StandWithChand was a natural thing to do as someone from the YATM was having a difficult time (read this on doing more together). Through the walk and awareness that we did, it became so much more than activity on a hot Friday morning, it was bringing in a host of people who all made the sum of its parts far stronger.

Stepping up, starts from the values you have. This could be independence, resourcefulness, self-reliance, honesty, grit, humility.

You then associate the values you have with societal causes. This could be injustice, discrimination, balance and empowerment.

What then happens is there is a connection between your values and the cause. When your intentions are matched it starts to fuel your involvement and what can be done. This now starts to move beyond a throwaway care emoji but making something tangible come to life.

You can’t support everything, but when your own humanity and beliefs come together, that’s a nod to where an opportunity can be found.

This makes me think, ‘is this what passion represents?’ You find something you can work hard at and commercialise, then you take that spark and help progress other people and causes. 

Perhaps the work you do today that supports a wider effort can help set up the next ten to 20 years? 

This is what I think passion comes down to when you have a reason to participate.

Sometimes jumping on a cause becomes superficial and can become overawing when seeing others support everything with social banners and acknowledgements. 

Here is how the link to wider causes that link to your own values come into play. This is what matters to finding momentum.

If everything you do is driven by money and extracting from someone else, then you become bereft of finding a way to leave a stamp. The focus was on you all along.

When there are people with you, you get to know each other better. People become open with each other. At the end of 2021, we ran a Mentimeter poll on how people were at the end of 2021. Rather than the upbeat veil people share on social media, it was quite the opposite. There were people who were having a very tough time personally and professionally.

For our StandWithChand the first group of people to reach out to was the YATM community. These are people who knew Chandy. What happens is that people help as they genuinely care about each other. This is what happens when relationships with others are formed. When you ask people, it’s easier for them to say yes.

Both don’t have to be at separate ends of the commercial spectrum. You can do well as a business by gaining knowledge, ideas, delivery, buy-in, trust, and business. You can also be a force for good in terms of the values you have and others’ support to help them progress.

You don’t have to think about wider causes that link to your principles as a marketing shoehorn for a higher purpose. It’s about taking things back to basics to the good person you are and the willingness to support others, who value your involvement.

It helps when you are linked to others, as you recognise the role you serve and the skillsets you have built that can assist. 

What you do (business-wise) can also become proof that you can contribute to others. You can’t stand still, there are ways to show the skills you have on a wider level. If this can combine with others, then you can perhaps make a lasting impact.