Hanging on to a Dream

In 1994, I worked for a start-up that is now a famous IT consultancy. As I have a tendency to look for the human being behind the “nerd,” this company’s management philosophy resonated with me as the CEO was into what one would now call Organizational Wellbeing of the employees. Their business model was likewise unusual, something that would these days be called “corporate social responsibility,” or CSR. After some years, as that term became widely known, I decided to gain more insight into the subject, and I began academic research in CSR at Radboud University in the Netherlands. I realized then that very few studies explored the human aspect of CSR; most behaved as if institutions were making decisions, instead of the people within them. That is why I embarked upon my own research into what essentially drives leaders who have made a commitment to CSR. What began as a sideline soon took on a life of its own, leading to the 51 in-depth interviews that form the basis for this chapter. During this research, it emerged how important self-care is for those who take CSR seriously. All this, along with my own life’s path, explains why I have specialized in self-care coaching for CSR leaders.