A common adjective, good means pleasing, favorable, nice. It’s standard after linking verbs like taste, smell, look, feel, and be: Everything tastes good here. These biscuits are really good. You look good in that dress. I’m feeling good this morning. I’m ready to tackle the day.

The word good is also used to describe things that satisfy needs and desires: A good meal, a nice house, a happy marriage. It’s also used to describe something morally right: We need to do good for our neighbors. The moral imperative to do good is hardwired into the human brain. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, especially when faced with the daily grind of work and family life.

It’s also not always easy to distinguish between good and evil, which makes some people flinch when pondering whether their actions are morally sound. The tendency to see the world in black and white terms can be dangerous and even harmful. For example, it’s very difficult to be a good person if you sit on your couch and think about helping the refugees in Syria but don’t actually do anything about it. And it’s a bad idea to label certain groups as evil because that gives policymakers a blank cheque for responding with violence, which is the easiest response of all.

So it’s important to take a broad view of what good is. It’s about fulfilling needs and enhancing pleasure, but it also includes the virtues of fairness, honesty, and loyalty. It’s about the virtue of selflessness and the virtue of being helpful, but it’s also about preserving our natural environment and promoting equality.

One of the most important elements of a good life is meaningful work, which requires a combination of passion and competence. That’s why it’s so important to find a career that allows you to combine your talents and interests. For many people, this is a matter of finding the right balance between autonomy and collaboration, between being able to work independently and being able to collaborate with other members of a team.

In an interview with The Gazette, David Deming, co-author of a National Bureau of Economic Research study, explained that most companies pick managers based on personality traits, age, or experience. But these aren’t the best predictors of managerial effectiveness. The study suggests that instead of relying on rigid job descriptions and outdated leadership theories, companies should use data-driven assessments to choose their next managers.

The good-to-great study analyzed 1,435 companies and identified 11 that made the leap from good to great. Then, they studied each of these companies to determine what differentiated them from the rest. To make the leap, a company must show a long pattern of good performance punctuated by a transition point, and then sustain high levels of performance for 15 years. During the transition from good to great, a company’s management climate looks a lot like a searing scientific debate, with smart, tough-minded people confronting brutal facts and debating what they mean.