Doing Good

We were in month two of the crisis, and there was no end in sight. I was proud of how our team was handling it—staying relatively positive, working hard, and generally being there for one another. But it was still early. I wanted to make sure we were still being true to our purpose of inspiring happiness.

I thought back on that early conversation I’d had with Sarah in the kitchen. She had asked how we would continue to live out our value to ‘Do Good’ during this time. In all honesty, my first response was to try to shelve the effort. We had our own survival to think about. There would be time to help others once the world was back to normal. Right?

No. Sarah was correct. Besides the growing level of need around us, there also was more to our survival than hitting numbers. Team morale was critical. Seeing our team come together in the face of adversity was one thing, but seeing how energized they got from helping others was a different thing altogether. It was like the entire company had a new pulse of electricity running through it when we were doing good together. We were wired to help.

It started to occur to me that doing good made all the sense in the world. It would help the team’s mindset. Many of our team members had extra time as projects were being pushed to later start dates. And many nonprofits were hurting deeply. Doing good seemed especially important now.

I decided then and there that we’d do something. I wasn’t sure what, but it seemed like a very us thing to do. I would bring it up at our next leadership team meeting and see what the group thought.

Key point: Stay true to who you are as a business. If there are core things that are fundamentally a part of your business, don’t lose them during a tough time. Instead, lean into them and refocus the team accordingly. And it’s never a bad time to do good.