Over the years, many business leaders have tried to craft a distinction between what one believes, supports, and ultimately executes in the name of 'the company' as specifically distinct from one's own personal beliefs, and nearly all these efforts have foundered. The arguments made in favor of splitting business from anything personal have a central theme that business is business, designed to carry out its exalted mission to serve constituents, associates, and customers. The theme continues that all methods, means, and practices of the company are not personal and should not be taken as such. This argument, almost invariably, is made from the point of view of the company. That is, the leadership assumes the existence of 'the company' and asks how employees' life experience and current situation or conditions, could possibly fit the company's model. Company heads reason that employees need to be ready to 'serve the company's mission' and thereby 'separate' the company's cause from any personal cause they may hold. Because these leaders begin with the company values in focus, they rationalize their thinking in a way that cannot be persuasive to people for whom the company is but one part of a vastly larger, and often deemed more vital, existence.

Not new, but certainly more prominent from today's workers' perspective, is the poignant search for 'meaning' in the work they do. People want their time, their passion, and their ever-developing intelligence to count for something. Individuals and companies alike are looking for alignment of values and purpose. This call for alignment necessarily demands that workers consider and re-consider what they believe in, stand for, and what abides deep within their core. These core values then are beckoning to be lived, to be given voice, and to be made manifest through intention and raw effort. People put much more than an impersonal series of hours strung together into accomplishing the tasks before them. They put their minds, their hearts, and their spirits into it—thereby generating a sense of meaning. This meaning ultimately impacts both the worker and the company, and indeed, the out pouring of this meaning is, at least in part, personal.

The Company regulations and the wall of separation supposedly erected between leadership and front-line have no effect whatsoever on the consciences or voices of individual employees as they seek to influence what the company does in their names. Loyalty in employees is alleged to be among the top desired characteristics that leaders seek. And yet, reportedly today's organizational reality calls for independence and self-reliance.

Authors B. Kaye and S. Jordan-Evans in their book, Love 'em or Lose 'em, state,

"Employees offer a different sense of loyalty through mutuality. Workers often have dedication and a willingness to perform a job according to company standards, but only within the context of partnership. This new loyalty is initiated by creating relationships that build upon individual interests and shared goals."

Maintaining a trenchant focus on the vitality of the business is indeed the central duty of executive leaders. Listening to the collective voice of employees about what makes work meaningful is equally significant. When leaders build a reputation for doing both, they fashion success that simultaneously cares about the people and generates financial, social, and business success for all involved.