Businesses destroy lives all the time. Not just by being poor partners to their consumers or communities, but through poor leadership and work environments where the employees feel overlooked or disregarded.
But what if businesses could be instruments of healing instead of destruction?
Our good friend Raj Sisodia and his co-writer, Michael Gelb, have written a wonderful examination of how business can be a force for good in the world with their book, The Healing Organization. We at BW encourage you to buy it, read it and take it to heart. Consider the stories they tell of companies who have found a better way to do business for all their stakeholders and ask yourself how you can contribute in your organization to create a better world.
Raj and Michael talk about their new book and share their valuable insights on this episode of our podcast.
“Most leaders understand their influence on team members’ lives during work hours, but often enough, they don’t think about how their leadership affects team members outside of the workplace as well.”
Barry-Wehmiller CEO, Bob Chapman, wrote this in a blog post on trulyhumanleadership.com titled “Wellness and Work: What's the ROI of Caring?” The connection between leadership and health has been a major point in his speeches over the past few years. In fact, he once told a group of CEOs that they were the cause of the healthcare crisis in our country.
A friend of ours, Jeffrey Pfeffer has a book, Dying for a Paycheck, which is a deep dive into the connection between the workplace and poor health. He had this to say about his book: "I tell people all the time...The workplace is killing people, and nobody cares. And to me, the second part is worse than the first. We do not care about human health and well-being. We do not care about human psychological physical health. We do not care about people. And until we change that orientation, it’s going to be ugly."
Much of Jeffrey’s book reinforces many of the things we’ve been saying for awhile. On this podcast, he talks about his book and explains why he thinks the workplace is killing people.