One of my favorite hobbies is hiking the mountains and hills around my Colorado home.
The spectacular vistas, the crisp mountain air, the effort put into the climb. I find it all extremely invigorating — a wonderful workout for the body and the mind as well. Some of my most clarifying thoughts have come to me on a mountain top.
One day, I was hiking in the mountains with my daughter Jennifer and her friend Beverly, the host of a TV talk show in Dallas that centers on family issues. My daughter, a mother of three school-aged children, asked Beverly, “What’s the most important thing in raising good kids?”
Beverly took a moment to think and then said, “A good marriage. If you have a good marriage, your children have that loving relationship example as a foundation in their lives.”
As soon as Beverly said that, I thought to myself: This is the "link" to creating a better world! Offer children a better chance of being part of a caring family by creating work environments and jobs from which their parents return home each day feeling good about themselves.
If organizations would embrace the responsibility of sending their associates home each day with a sense of fulfillment — a sense that who they are and what they do each day matters — they will be better husbands, wives and community members. They will have a better chance of dealing with the challenges of marriage, of raising a family, of getting along in this world.
When people return home from their jobs feeling good about themselves, they are more likely to end up having better relationships, and their children will grow up seeing a loving relationship.
Think of the ripple effect this would have on families and communities! A lot of the issues we face in this country would dissipate if organizations committed to creating corporate cultures in which people felt valued, engaged, cared for and celebrated for their gifts and talents.
Imagine a future where marriages are saved, and children grow up with a completely different outlook on the world because business leaders chose to concentrate as much on the people under their care as they do on their bottom lines.