Kindness should always be our guiding force. I've been horrified this week to learn that there are some high-end managers and C-Suites out there making life as hard as they can for their people. Why? So they can look good. The managers that is, not the people! And in a time when there is an abundance of leadership courses. Anyone else find this ironic?
Then I learn that a dear sweet girl is being bullied so severely at school that every cell in her body is reacting. Surely at a time when mental health is a major concern, bullying should be addressed head on.
Simultaneously we are seeing countless and wonderful acts of gratitude and service daily. If you want a hit of good news, follow @goodnews_movement on instagram or the Good News Network. This week the news and social media has been full of the wonderful accomplishments of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Read about the Five Great Things About Her We Should Never Forget.
My favourite is number 4, she lived by her morals. Closely followed by everything else I have read about her accomplishments over the years.
Today at SingularityU Australia we go into a 2 day strategy session with our amazing team. Top of our list is our Vision for the future and the Values we choose to live by, that guide how we show up at work every day and how we treat each other. Values should be verbs, doing words, and you should do them every day.
At SingularityU Australia we live at the intersection of the Values of Humanity with the Value of Technology. Technology is here so we can make the world a better place and create global reach in our quest to change the world to good. We stand by the belief that it is not the technology that is good or bad, rather it is the motivation and intent of the human behind the technology.
So how do we ensure that no-one is left behind to rot the case of apples? How do we ensure equal opportunity and strive for egalitarianism? To begin, each of us can perform a small/big/ginormous random act of kindness every day. Every Single Day. How do we help those inadequate managers become the best they can be? Don't let them get away with acts of belittlement and cruelty. Call out the bad behaviour. As John Stuart Mill is quoted as saying in 1867, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
And in the words of Justice Ginsburg, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
What act of kindness will you undertake to perform today? And what will you fight for in order to create the world that we can be proud to leave the generations of the future?
