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At the heart of Cydcor’s culture is the tenet of “people helping people.” Cydcor stands behind this idea by fostering a work environment that promotes both personal and corporate philanthropy and by offering team members a paid volunteer day each year to serve a cause that matters to them. Our service mindset is grounded in the concept of servant leadership, which focuses on empowering and developing our people, building a better company, and giving back to the community.
One example of how we’ve put this mindset into practice is Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club, founded by team members to provide employees with corporate philanthropy and volunteering opportunities throughout the year. Here are just some of the ways Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club has made a meaningful impact on the community in 2019:
March: Pizza Sale — Liberty Children’s Home
Liberty Children’s Home is a sanctuary in Belize that offers a safe, loving environment to more than 40 abused, abandoned, and neglected children — some with special needs or suffering from HIV or AIDS. At a Leaders Meeting in March, team members sold Costco pizza with all proceeds donated to Liberty to support learning, activities, medical care, facility improvements, and basic needs like electricity, clothes, and food.
April: Crayfish Removal
Team members partnered with Mountains Restoration Trust to help preserve and protect the streams and creeks of the Malibu Creek Watershed by removing invasive, non-native crayfish. Harmful to the ecosystem of the Santa Monica Mountains, crayfish prey on native species, reduce water quality, and worsen creek bed erosion. Prior to our arrival, scientists set more than 100 traps along a stream bed in Oak Park. Cydcor volunteers removed crayfish caught in these traps and cleaned up trash along the banks. Additionally, they measured the size of caught crayfish to help record and collect data.
May: Special Olympics Regional Spring Games
Special Olympics of Southern California provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Philanthropy Club participants volunteered at the Ventura County Special Olympics Spring Games held at Oaks Christian Highschool, featuring swimming and flag football competitions. Responsibilities included coaching, time keeping, score keeping, and cheering in the stands to show Cydcor spirit and support for local athletes.
June: Heal the Bay
For 35 years, Heal the Bay has been mobilizing communities across Los Angeles to protect the California coastline, restore waterways, and advocate smart water policies. Cydcor volunteers gave time at a monthly Heal the Bay event to pick up trash along a Santa Monica beach. After a full morning of cleanup, the team enjoyed a group lunch in Venice, a popular beachfront community.
July: Learn Earn Return
Learn Earn Return is a nonprofit organization focused on providing students and teachers with the necessary school supplies for a successful school year. Team members collected and donated items that might otherwise have been a heavy financial burden to students and their families, such as backpacks, composition notebooks, wide-ruled paper, glut sticks, scissors, rulers, and more.
September: Operation Blankets of Love
The Philanthropy Club held a volunteer event for Operation Blankets of Love, a leading animal welfare and emergency relief nonprofit organization that provides food and critical supplies for more than 12,000 animals a year in shelters, in rescue groups, and with pet owners experiencing homelessness or another hardship. Cydcor volunteers collected blankets, towels, toys, and other badly needed pet supplies donated during the event.
September: Pet Adoptions
Team members partnered with L.I.F.E. Animal Rescue, a nonprofit organization that rescues homeless or abandoned dogs and cats and places them in permanent, responsible, and loving homes. Cydcor volunteers supported L.I.F.E.’s weekly animal adoption event at a local PetSmart to help pets find their forever home.
October: Alzheimer’s 5K
Team members joined their local Walk to End Alzheimer’s® 5K, an Alzheimer Association event held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research. Participants walking in the Westlake Village, California 5K surpassed their goal of $500 by raising $1,788. Cydcor matched donations of $500.
November: EARTHS Thanksgiving Food Drive
Cydcor volunteers supported the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive of the Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences (EARTHS) Magnet School in Newbury Park, California. Individual and department donations provided holiday favorites, canned food staples, and grocery gift cards to help 100 local families in need enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.
The contributions of Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club show the positive difference that employee-driven corporate philanthropy and volunteering can make on our schools, neighborhoods, and charities. Through community service, our team members embody Cydcor’s culture of “people helping people” by uniting behind a shared purpose, collaborating to overcome challenges and accomplish goals, and serving causes that matter.
Servant leadership is a concept which holds that adopting a service-focused mindset simultaneously benefits corporations, their employees, and the community at large. At Cydcor, the Agoura Hills based leader in outsourced sales, we know first-hand that our “People helping people” motto is more than just good PR; it’s good business. The benefits of participating in community service stretch well beyond creating a “feel good” vibe around the office (though they include that, too). Servant leadership empowers employees, builds critical skills to succeed in business, and fosters a sense of teamwork, community, and renewed commitment to the organization’s shared goals.
1) Empathizing with Others: Acting as servant leaders helps team members better relate to customers and to each other. Finding common ground is a necessary first step for building trust and is a key ingredient for forming strong and lasting partnerships.
2) Learning to Listen: Serving others forces employees to master the skill of listening. Indispensable and hard to teach in these times of selfies and tweets, the ability to hear and process information from others offers inarguable advantages in sales or any kind of business interaction.
3) Getting the Message Out: Servant leadership is all about gaining and raising awareness for critical issues affecting the global community. This push to spread a message for good can help employees hone the marketing and sales skills they’ll also use to advocate on behalf of their clients.
4) Dreaming Big: In order to envision a better world, servant leaders must set ambitious goals and create plans to achieve them. In business, the ability to think big and devise viable action plans to attain goals is critical to realizing personal and organizational growth and success.
5) Looking Ahead: Having foresight helps servant leaders anticipate and sidestep roadblocks in advance and create contingency plans to overcome the challenges that might lie ahead. Employees who master this skill through service can support their organizations with the strategic planning necessary to sustain business growth in a competitive business landscape.
6) Changing Minds: A critical task of servant leaders is to effectively persuade others to care, to give, or to volunteer to help achieve a common goal. They learn how to use consensus, not manipulation or coercion, to bring others on board and reframe thinking. This power to unite teams, recruit participants, and boost enthusiasm for causes and goals can give employees an edge when selling and promoting products, training direct reports, and building their crew.
7) Being Model Mentors: A defining characteristic of servant leadership is stewardship. Servant leaders see their role as one of developing others and helping them hone their skills to take on greater responsibility. Growing the leaders of tomorrow benefits the individuals, promotes growth within an organization, and trains future advocates for the community at large.
8) Committing to Growth: Good servant leaders make it their mission to help others achieve their goals and reach their full potential. They push others to venture outside of their comfort zones and create bold visions for the future. This passion for growth can help organizations stay competitive, inspires innovation, and builds a culture where employees believe success is achievable.
9) Building Community: A concept that spans employee teams, organizations, and society at large; employees who feel a strong sense of community view themselves as vital parts of something larger. They are motivated to perform because they know that what benefits the community, benefits them as well.
10) Taking Joy in the Journey: The greatest servant leaders are those who help spread excitement throughout organizations and into the community. They help maintain a positive outlook and thrive on the thrill of overcoming challenges. Acknowledging employees’ hard work and rewarding them for their achievements helps foster a community of servant leaders who express pride in themselves through excellence at their jobs.
Encouraging employees to act as servant leaders has benefits across every aspect of a business. It improves moral and unity, it fosters a positive relationship between companies and their communities, and it helps develop a workforce that is well prepared for the complex challenges of tomorrow.