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
Career coaching isn't my specialty. As a business advisor my focus has principally been on company growth through improving the business acumen and leadership capacity of the people within a well-defined business strategy.
Over the years, however, many a client has come to me seeking career advice usually when they are in the midst of a tough shift -- job loss or job dissatisfaction. Most of us struggle with time management, but that isn't the issue at all. The real problem is we haven't identified what's most important to us... really important. Therefore, we take on too much, spread ourselves thin, and never develop to our true strengths, passion, and purpose. We're simply close, but still off-purpose. What a waste!
A Tough Shift™ happens when we're not making a smooth and peaceful transition. Often these transformations are due to a change in circumstances beyond our control. Sometimes we choose them in order to improve our situation or life.
A essential element of any tough shift is the ability to have a firm grasp on reality. Hindrances such a denial, blame, and fear cloud our progress. The management of changes is a core life skill to develop.
Do you need help making your Tough Shift? Today is the last day to join me in a new 6-week On-Purpose Leader Experience. The On-Purpose Process is amazingly simple to do, yet the effects will last a lifetime. Invest 5 minutes to learn more.
For your convenience all webcasts are recorded and available for replay at our private website where you can also post questions and interact with other participants and me. Here is the link for the webcast 1 replay from Feb. 1: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=26215212
A Tough Shift™ happens when we're not able to make a smooth transition. Do you find yourself fretting, fearful, or discouraged? Take heart!
Tough shifts are events such as career changes, starting a business, having a baby, retiring, getting married or divorced, a death, a move, a job change -– they're all around us. Some are smoothly managed, others are not. That's when we need help (scroll to bottom for help).
As a kid, I remember learning to drive a stick shift in an ice blue 1962 MG Midget that our family owned. This car made today's Mini Cooper look big. It was basically a tin coffin with an engine and wheels and a removable lid. It had paper-thin doors, slide on windows, a pull starter, and it was absolutely the most fun car in the world to tool around town in. (I can't believe I found a photo online of one that looked just like it!)
My digression into my '62 MG Midget past is about learning to shift gears. I remember the first sounds and feel of that gearshift in my hand as I attempted to sync the clutch, the gearshift, and still steer the car. I find myself driving two-footed every now and then with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. Growing up in the "South Hills" of Pittsburgh meant I needed to master it all fast, lest I drift into the car behind me at all stops! Today, driving a stick is still second nature thanks to what I mastered at age 16.
Tough shifts in life are similar to my learning to drive a stick shift experience. They can be difficult, noisy, rough, clashing, and damaging with the threat of even worse things happening. On the other hand, once mastered, the ability to make what used to be a tough shift becomes an opportunity to efficiently go places. The skills are transferable to other "vehicles." The lessons learned stay with us.
Do you need help making your Tough Shift? Join me in a new six-week On-Purpose Leader Experience starting on Wednesday February 1, 2012 at 12:05 PM Eastern. For your convenience all webcasts are recorded and available for replay at our private website where you can also post questions and interact with other participants and me.
Job loss, underemployment, a part-time job instead of a full time job, less pay for less rewarding work. Or perhaps you just don't like the job you have. You are in the midst of or contemplating a Tough Shift™. Don't go through it alone! (Check out The On-Purpose Leader Experience below - starts this Wednesday!)
You are not alone in the transition of your career. As of December 2011, US unemployment stands at 8.5%. The under-employment rate -- those persons working in jobs below their skill set or prior earning capacity -- is estimated in the 18%-20% range. My observations of many business owners are showing sales off anywhere from 30%-70% compared to pre-recession numbers.
When the US Economy catches a cold, the whole world sneezes! This unfortunate effect has many people spinning and caught in a round of chaos and confusion. Couple this with technology changes and the personal fallout from job loss and underemployment-–it all amounts to a serious world wide tough shift.
Change is never easy, but change under duress is even tougher. Fear, worry, doubt, and anxiety creep into us. This affects us at some profound subconscious level and begins to be communicated. Our nervous vibe causes others to view us as desperate and risky. This perpetuates our greatest fears from the tough shift.
What to do? This On-Purpose Business Minute offers some simple and calming insights. Are you ready to tackle the underlying issues, so you're tough shift proofed?
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Do you need help making your Tough Shift?
Join me for a new six-week On-Purpose Leader Experience starting on Wednesday February 1, 2012 at 12:05 PM Eastern. For your convenience all webcasts are recorded and available for replay at our private website where you can also post questions and interact with other participants and me.
As President Obama prepares to address the nation tonight, let me ask you one simple question, "What is the state of your American Dream?" Use your webcam to post your response to YouTube or Facebook and then add your link below so others can see what you have to say.
The only rules:
1. Keep it non-political. Hey, let's hear your story.
2. Be civil.
3. At the start of the video, please give your name and location.
Watch today's On-Purpose Business Minute then invest 15 more minutes to watch the Coca-Cola Content 2020 videos posted below. In them you'll see this On-Purpose concept put into action and then some and then some more. It is mind-blowing to see how Coke has moved from selling caffeinated sugar water to a global cause and conversation around its brands. Use the comments section (below) in my vblog to create our own conversation about the strategic implications to your business; your impressions; guesstimates on what it cost to write, create, and produce this; or whatever other lessons, insights, or feelings it stirred in you.
Frequently, I'm asked, "What is strategy or strategic plan?" Coca-Cola answers that question from the point of view of a world-class brand. These videos, while technically sophisticated in thought, bring strategy to life in a visually appealing and rapid manner. It may seem "liquid" but it is thick! Don't let it intimidate you. Instead allow it to inspire you.
(FYI -- it is purely coincidental that I happened to use a white board for this On-Purpose Business Minute. Coca-Cola and I have different production budgets! Ha, an understatement!)
Part 1 of 2 (7:28 Minutes)
Part 2 of 2 (10:18 minutes)
Here is the original text for this classic On-Purpose Business Minute that originally aired on Feb. 17, 2011.
Twitter, and the like, "social media." Media is a broad term in marketing that is associated with print, radio, TV, electronic, and, now, social. While the rest of the world is busy socializing, we business folks are figuring out a way to engage in their conversation a la Seth Godin's brilliant Permission Marketing approach.
Let's think of media as merely a channel or means to get out a message. For example, I'm in the business of getting out the On-Purpose® message. I leverage media to help me spread the word.
Far too many business people are struggling with making sense of this new media opportunity. The problem is their focus is in the wrong place, yet again. It is a classic case of fire, ready, aim. The technology isn't the key -- it is the means. The true challenge is the strategy.
There's a well-defined "chain of strategic command" that is too often overlooked with costly consequences. Social media is simply that latest victim of a busted chain and dangling tactical activities.
Put it in perspective. Invest in your core strategy and then bring it to life tactically. Activity in the absence of strategy is simply wishful thinking and lazy business leadership.
Ladies and Gentlemen, your manners distinguish you for better or for worse. Above all manners are voluntary, a choice we make as to how you choose to be and to present yourself.
Lately, I've been pondering both my language and carriage with a measure of concern. Our present culture is so accustomed to using and hearing profanity that we've lost our sense of what is profane.
Admittedly, I'm no Puritan as I'm apt to drop my share of curse words from time to time. When I'm real with myself, I don't like it when I do it. Cussing is typically lazy, dumbed-down language coming from the lesser me rather than the greater me. It tears me down and, worse, brings others with me, especially as a leader.
Yep, both my manner and manners matter. I'm working to be the best Kevin I can be. Will you join me in cleaning up your language? When you do, you're also becoming a better leader of your life by becoming a lady or a gentleman.
In this classic (April, 20 2010) On-Purpose Minute, you'll catch me at the Ritz-Carlton on Grand Cayman Island. After the video I do a quick 270 degree sweep of this beautiful resort. Special thanks to Daniel, the concierge, who suggested where to shoot the video and escorted me there. Truly a gentleman!
A couple of decades ago a friend of mine attempted to organize a mentor program for those of us in our thirties. He reached out to select men in their 50s and 60s to recruit them as mentors. To his surprise, all of the men he approached felt inadequate to the task of being a mentor. You see, they had never really been mentored so they perceived themselves as not being up to the task and responsibility. Sadly, the program never got off the ground as a result.
Chances are that you, too, don't have a mentor. But do you wish you did?
A mentor is a person with an impersonal interest in your personal leadership development and personal growth. You may be thinking, "'an impersonal interest?' I would think it would be a very personal interest."
Actually, those of us who mentor need to maintain a healthy distance from our proteges lest we run the risk of being too close to the person. We risk becoming their fan, instead of their mentor. The effect of too much closeness colors our perceptions and shades our reflective feedback.
As a mentor, I must place my commitment to the mentor-protege roles and process above the personal relationship. Similarly, a defense lawyer must place the system of law above the client to ensure justice is served.
To have a "yes man" as a mentor is to have no mentor at all. Mentors must be able to speak truth in love and be willing to suffer the consequence of offending. Truth is the stock and trade of a mentor.
Mentors aren't dictators; we refine and develop a person's inherent leadership and innate intelligence and capacity for good. Allowing proteges to experience the consequences of their decisions comes with the title of mentor. We need to speak our piece and learn to shut up. Our ultimate interest must be independent, not co-dependent proteges. Any mentor who is doing otherwise, it simply on an ego trip.
Yoda from Star Wars may be the most famous of all fictional mentors as the unlikely leader of the Jedi Knights. Wouldn't we all like to have a mentor teach us to use "The Force" so we can perform like a Jedi? Recall, however, how many times old Yoda seems to scrunch his face in dismay as Anakin or Luke Skywalker gets ready to do some impulsive (stupid) move that will turn the Force into a Farce.
Who in your life is or was a mentor for you? What is it about your mentor relationship that makes it special? What does your mentor provide you?
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.
Unemployment, slow business, foreclosures, and underemployment are just some of the struggles pressing into the hearts and minds of many today. As the debts pile up and the opportunities apparently diminish, the personal repercussions can cause us to lose hope and begin to see our lives as failing. This situational depression can weigh on one's spirit to the point of discouragement and negativity as we paint ourselves as failures.
What if your perspective, not your current circumstance, is the problem? Today's On-Purpose Minute challenges us to stop looking outward and begin looking inward and upward for a fresh approach that holds the key to the present situation and life beyond.
Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, saw "failure" as information. (See the video clip "I Haven't Failed" by my actor friend, Frank Attwood, who portrays Edison.)
Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director, in the movie Apollo 13 is attributed with saying, "Failure is not an option," in the face of saving the crew in space.
I'm struggling right now with many challenges in life, business, and family. Perhaps I needed this message more than you do, so forgive me for talking to myself out loud. Yes, failure is not an option. Sometimes it simply takes that kind of resolve even as the world crumbles about us. I needed to hear that!
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