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When I'm not helping clients with some of the more practical issues related to career advancement like formulating a networking strategy, refining a LinkedIn profile, or preparing for an important interview, I'm often having a conversation with them about the impact of their work.
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And in those conversations, one theme seems to come up over and over again.
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Invariably, the people I work with want to know that they're making the world a better place.
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Have you ever thought that you want to make the world a better place through your work?
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If you have, do you know what that really means, or how would you know you're doing it?
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Stay tuned, and we'll talk about it.
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Making the world a better place through your work.
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I've rarely met with anyone, whether it's through my private coaching practice at Career Narratives, through the work I do as a coach at Harvard Business School, or with corporate clients, who doesn't say that they want to help make the world a better place through their work, even in a small way.
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The trick, however, is understanding what that really means.
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And my first question usually is, how would you know?
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As a listener of this podcast, do you know if or how you're making the world a better place?
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In most cases, the people I work with, they're stumped.
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They really struggle to explain this.
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They say they just know, or it would be obvious.
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But once they give it a little more thought, they realize that there could be signs that the world is marginally or even greatly improved as a result of their efforts.
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I'll give you some examples.
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Among the people I work with in healthcare, and there have been hundreds along the way, the sign they might want to see is data that shows people are living healthier and fuller lives as a result of their work.
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Maybe that's because of a new medical technology or a device, or they might want to see a lower incidence of a debilitating condition or disease or maybe a new cure for a deadly one.
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Other people might hope to see increased access to healthcare providers or healthcare information.
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There are countless potential outcomes that might signal that the world has become, or is becoming, a better place for these clients.
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I've also worked with quite a few people in financial services, and that's broadly defined.
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They, too, want to feel that they're improving the state of the world in some way, large or small.
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The most common theme I hear from people working in this area is some version of wanting to help people achieve greater financial stability and security.
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Or maybe they want to help direct more investment dollars to communities that historically wouldn't have received them.
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Or perhaps they want to help wealthier people and families direct their resources to businesses and causes that might, well, you guessed it, make the world a better place.
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Don't get me wrong, I know that there's a significant percentage of people in financial services who are primarily in it for the money, power, and prestige, but they're typically not my clients.
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Before I became an executive and career coach, I worked in the beauty and personal care industry.
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My last role was at Neutrogena, which was a part of Johnson Johnson.
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There were signs of positive impact on the world there, too.
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Now, that might sound like a stretch.
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I was working in the beauty industry, but I personally saw those signs when I went to focus groups or reviewed the results of clinical studies.
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If you've ever witnessed a focus group with teenagers who used to suffer from acne and whose faces, confidence, and general outlook on life were transformed by a product or a drug that you had helped to bring to market, you couldn't help but feel that you had done something real to help make the world a friendlier, more positive place for at least a large handful of people.
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I would also get the sense that I was improving the life experience of individuals when I met people at parties.
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I know, it sounds silly.
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I would tell them where I worked, and then their faces would light up, and they would share how one of the products I was working on or had worked on had helped them with the skin problem that they were having or had had for a long time.
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Through their stories and through the stories of others, I learned that people could show up in the world and be more inclined to openness, self assurance, and success because of something I had done in my professional life.
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It was hard not to be touched by these stories and see how the world had become or could become a better place for thousands or perhaps even millions of people as a result of my work.
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But these are just the signs, the outcomes of well intentioned work.
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And you have to ask yourself, what drives people to make a difference in other people's lives and in the world in general?
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Do you know why you want to?
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And why do so many people tell me in coaching sessions that they want to make the world a better place?
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I mentioned that I worked at Johnson Johnson.
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If you're at all familiar with the company, you may know about the J&J Credo, and I think there's some insight to be had.
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If you went to business school, there's a good chance you were taught about the Credo.
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It was created in 1943 by Robert Wood Johnson II and was written just before the company started trading publicly.
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The J&J Credo was all about responsibility.
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I'll link to the Credo in the show notes if you want to read the entire thing, but for the purpose of this podcast episode you just need to know that it outlined the company's responsibilities in four broad areas.
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The first was the company's responsibility to its customers, to the patients, doctors, nurses, and anyone else who used or benefited from the company's products.
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The second covered the company's responsibility to its employees.
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The third was about the responsibility the company had to the communities in which Johnson Johnson operated.
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And the fourth, and notably the last, was about the company's shareholders.
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The assumption being that if the company lived up to its responsibilities to the first three sets of stakeholders, then the fourth, the shareholders, would realize a fair return on their investment.
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Nowadays, you might think of the J&J Credo as a statement of corporate social responsibility.
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And it wasn't just window dressing.
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When I arrived at Neutrogena, I found it posted on the wall in every conference room I ever sat in and in many of the public spaces at the company.
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And it was similarly displayed at other J&J companies, and it was commonly evoked when people I worked with were facing difficult decisions.
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Maybe the decision was about a feature of a product or the price of a product or whether the product should even exist at all.
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And people took the company's commitment to the Credo seriously, and it helped guide many important decisions.
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Were the decisions made always in perfect alignment with the Credo's values?
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They typically were.
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Was there tension in the decision-making process when Credo values suggested a course of action that might not be consistent with immediate financial or market considerations?
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Definitely.
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But in most instances that I can recall, a sense of responsibility to the company's key constituents, guided by the Credo, led to decisions that put the company's customers, employees, and communities ahead of immediate financial gain or competitive market considerations.
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If you were listening carefully when I described the Credo, you probably picked up that it was all about responsibility.
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If J&J employees met the responsibilities to the company's stakeholders, the world would be a better place for those stakeholders, and that included the company's shareholders.
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Thinking about the Credo now, I realized that it communicated something deeper, something even more elemental than just responsibility.
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It communicated a sense of respect, a deep, abiding respect for the company's customers, employees, communities and shareholders.
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And similarly, when I think about how my coaching clients talk about having a positive impact on the world, I find that there's a deep respect there too.
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Even if it's not obvious right at the beginning of the conversation.
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In healthcare, when I hear clients talk about working on treatments, cures, and medical devices, they're often driven by a basic respect for human dignity and happiness.
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For clients working in tech on SaaS, their desire to help make the world more efficient and enjoyable is driven by a respect for people and their day-to-day experience in the working world.
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For clients in fields related to sustainability, I often hear them expressing a deep respect for nature, for the world and for the Earth.
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And for many in financial services, especially consumer financial services, they express respect for their customers' commitments to themselves and their families.
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So I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to make the world a better place and you're not exactly sure how you're going to do that in your professional life, try digging a little deeper or working backwards.
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Who or what in this world do you feel you could make an enduring commitment to?
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Who or what could you be responsible to?
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Who or what do you respect in this world?
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It's not necessarily something you can figure out overnight or even in a week, but maybe thinking about what you have respect for will help you figure out how you could make a contribution through your work that could help make the world a better place.
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If you struggle with questions like these, consider signing up for a Career Strategy Session with me at careernarratives.com/strategy.
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In a 45 or 90-minute one-on-one session, we can consider questions like these.
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Or, if you already have a good sense of how you can make the world a better place, we can think about how you might go about advancing your career in that direction.
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You've got my respect, and I'll see you soon.
