Insights, inspiration, and practical leadership and business tips and advice for meaningfully integrating your life and work using the On-Purpose Approach by Kevin W. McCarthy
Your contribution to the life of another is directly tied to the gift you possess. How well you examine and understand your gift directly influences the measure of your difference making.
Within you is something inherently special. It is a gift that must be unwrapped, examined, and understood to be fully appreciated and enjoyed. This gift is an expression of your purpose.
You can give this gift by sharing The On-Purpose Person with a family member or friend. Place your order today. Do you want the book(s) to be personalized and signed? Use the comment section on the order page to give us instructions. If you want to include a gift card with your name, please let us know and we'll even do that for you.
"How can I be a better leader?" is a question I am regularly asked by clients and audience members at speaking engagements. Leadership is one of 3 competencies to master so we can rise to our greater contribution and call to service.
Rather than give you leadership tips and secrets, let's explore the central, inescapable baseline of how to be a better leader -- The On-Purpose® Principle. By understanding and applying this concept to your life and work, you'll see that leadership comes naturally rather than being a forced effort.
To become a leader, become a better you. This starts with knowing your purpose in life -- your inherent worth and reason for being that lives in your heart. Your purpose is an amazing gift too often buried under layers of doubt, pride, wounds, and challenges. Rather than seeing these layers as prevention from getting you to know who you really are, what if they are protection and preparation for just this time in your life to really understand the power of your purpose, and being on-purpose?
Let's take to the white board for insights and practical application of the On-Purpose® Principle so you can create high alignment of your personal purpose with your organizational purpose. That's how you can create peak performance from being a leader of your life and work.
With the ever increasing speed of business, can business plans keep pace? In this On-Purpose Business Minute, I explore the shift in the nature and the need of business plans.
Please post your comments below or your observations about the recent changes you've seen in business planning.
The self awareness and inner strength of the leader gets transmitted throughout the team, division, or business. It is hard to see oneself for how we really are. Some of us are hard on ourselves. Others of us overestimate the strength of our leadership. There's one defining benchmark that will clarify how solid your leadership is. I address it in this On-Purpose Business Minute.
Have you ever been led by a solid core leader? Please share your experience in the comments below.
At a recent client management round table I facilitated, the participants emphasized the lack of direction and communication. Their sentiments were echoed and validated by an employee survey. When asked to perform a financial assessment on the cost of poor communication and direction, within two minutes these leaders had calculated over $12 million in costs or 25% of the company's gross revenues.
Is this high cost an exaggeration? Not at all. Their experience is typical. Through the years I've invited clients to assess the cost of being off-purpose. Consistently, it is a breathtaking percentage of revenues. Here's why: every line item on the financial statements is affected. The effect, however, is mostly indirect so the true cost is out of sight on the typical performance metrics.
Broadly insufficient direction and communication reflects on the top leaders. Experience tells me it isn't that the top leaders won't direct or communicate, it is that they don't know what to communicate. Direction and communication are deep strategic matters residing in the office of the CEO and C-suite. Purpose, vision, mission, and values form the basis of core strategy that inform the business plan. Generalities instead of strategic clarity muddy direction and communication. When the leadership and management team are fuzzy, then the supervisory and front line people are left guessing what to do.
Interestingly, those who "guess" better than most, get promoted. They imagine being in management will give them the opportunity to manage better than they were managed. In fact, they soon discover they're just closer to the source of the problem and are even more exposed to the risks of managing through the mud. This can lead to a feeling of being squeezed between upper management and front line workers. On one hand, one wants to be loyal to their employer; yet, on the other hand, it is really hard to defend dumb policies and procedures with no basis of strategy or logic. In top management's defense (to some degree), it is a fine line to walk between leading and managing versus dictating and micro-managing. On the other hand, if you are the CEO -- figure out your strategy and direction and commit yourself and your team to being true to it. Sell it consistently with great internal communication and reward right behaviors.
One of the great movie lines of all time comes from the movie Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman. The chain gang prison captain says to Luke after rendering a whipping on him, "What we got here is... failure to communicate." Watch Video.
Indeed, we do have... failure to communicate. Imagine being in my shoes and seeing huge gains and savings to be had in a business, yet the leader is out of the comfort of his or her experience or they assume they are communicating. Expecting others to be mind readers is frustrating for everyone.
Purpose is the beginning of clarity in life and business. It pays big dividends to be on-purpose.
Ask most businesspersons what they need and the likely answer is "more money!" That's a bit like asking a football coach what he needs: "More points!" Money, however, is a self-deceiving answer or an easy target to articulate.
Having worked as and with business owners for four decades (I started very early), I can tell you that money may be the obvious answer, but it is rarely the right answer. Money is a specific commodity with well-defined functions, mostly as a measure.
Oddly, the lack of money may be more valuable than the money itself. It forces us to get creative and assess what's working and what isn't working so we're prepared to add better value and deliver better services. It keeps us real and can reveal blind spots that are preventing us from realizing our dream.
Being in business provokes us and pushes our buttons emotionally. I'm not saying go out there and look to take stupid hits. On the contrary, avoid them, but some number of hits are inevitable. Rather than letting them take you down, let them build you up by learning, growing, and maturing.
In the following On-Purpose Business Minute, I'll share with you the three most common attributes that attract money to businesses: law, order, and opportunity. If you're a business owner or entrepreneur, this is a must see Minute.
One of the most tragic aspects of my mentoring work is to see people's leadership blinders. There are many ways of "acquiring" these blinders that hide our leadership potential. I've been gifted with eyes to see into the hearts of people and to have an inherent sense of their leadership potential. Frankly, this gift has a heartbreaking downside as I see people who cower from knowing who they really are and settle for less in this one lifetime.
I understand that it takes courage to find one's voice in the world. May I help you?
Was it a mentor or parent who failed to recognize your potential and polish the genius of your spirit? Perhaps it was abuse at the hands of a tyrant who pushed you down in order to build up himself or herself? Or, is it simply the fear of being known and choosing to play life too safely? The reasons are many, yet the results are the same - being off-purpose and suffering the costs of being less than who we were intended to be and become.
Are you ready to reject mediocrity and begin majoring in your life? May I be your mentor for the next six weeks through The On-Purpose Leader Experience? Join other on-purpose persons as we go deep into the heart of being a leader to the spirit of who you are. This breakthrough Experience is hard to grasp on the front end, yet, I promise, you will not regret participating.
Each week we delve into the On-Purpose Process in a fun, yet meaningful and respectful manner to help you get to the essence of who you are and how you can become a more confident, strong, and faithful leader of your life.
The concept of a "compelling why" is one often batted about by motivational speakers, sales trainers, and leaders. But just what is a compelling why?
An example of a compelling why is a single mom who works two jobs to provide a college education for her children, or the mothers who started MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to educate and advocate against drunk driving and drivers.
My experience is that most of us confuse a compelling why with a cause - an important mission that captures our heart and spurs us on with untold energy, vigor, and determination. But a compelling why is not the same as your "why" - a simple reason for being.
Getting on the band wagon for a good cause is worthy but what if there's more to life than a compelling why? In today's On-Purpose Minute, I invite you to consider the importance of simply knowing your why.
Do you really know who you are? Are you maturing or just getting older?
Purpose is ultimately a spiritual matter. Most of us are on neutral ground when we talk in terms of mind, body, spirit. For two decades people of many faiths and even people of no faith have participated in and benefited from the On-Purpose® Approach as it is. It just works because the principles are universal!
When Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce President Mark Goldstein urged me to offer the program from a solidly Christian point of view to the Chamber members, I resisted. Not because I was unwilling, but because I am the Board Chair and didn't want to abuse my position. Mark pressed hard upon me and prevailed with the Board's blessings. Could they really say no? See the problem?
My Christian faith is the central point of integration for my life. Generally, I don't wear it on my sleeve, nor do I hide it. I like the idea of having "living water language" that is both secular and sacred. So much of Christianity is riddled with jargon and scripture references that is an unnecessary barrier to entry to the faith. Jesus taught in parables when not dealing with the religious elites. On-Purpose makes faith more accessible to all.
Therefore, in partnership with the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce, I am thrilled to share with you the replay of the first ever On-Purpose Leader Experience for Christians. Here is a link so you can listen. (55 minutes plus 20 minutes of Q&A)
If you are serious about maturing as a leader of your life, then you want to invest an hour of your life to transform your life. This six-week experience is that good. Registration for this experience closes after Monday, September 20. Please listen in and join me for the next five weeks so you, too, can...
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
PS: If you like what you see and hear, please use the "SHARE THIS" button on the replay website to tell your family and friends. Frankly this is a message that needs to get out to lots of people in the pews.
It is funny
when we say it, yet the price of not really knowing who we are as
grown-ups is needlessly expensive to every aspect of our lives.
I
get it! You're stretched to the max and burdened under more
commitments than you have time. Life is wrapped so tight, that you're
not sure where to begin with making your life make sense.
Now, you
can test drive The On-Purpose LeaderExperience
which is based on
The On-Purpose Person. Listen and watch the replay of the
introductory webcast by CLICKING HERE. You will be taken to
the replay page. Be
sure to click on "SLIDES" in the upper left hand
corner so you can watch and listen.
The program includes
five
remaining webcasts, replays, and web site support.
Experience what it
means to be on-purpose and to be in a community of on-purpose persons in
creation for the six plus weeks while the Experience is happening. The next Experience begins on September 8, 2010. Preregistration is now open. You can also register here.
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