The Professor of On-Purpose
Yesterday (6/1/16) was the launch of a business renaissance! Yes, there’s a pre-order book campaign underway but don’t let the significance of this moment pass you by. The idea of a Chief Leadership Officer™ is now! The transformation from CEO-run to CLO-led organizations is a long-term project but it needed to start somewhere, some place by someone.
Pre-order Chief Leadership Officer here. Please invest in the movement!
WINTER PARK, FL, 6.1.16 at 6:28 am (sunrise) the dawn of a new day and way for being in business officially launched with the pre-order campaign of the book: Chief Leadership Officer.
This sunrise officially ushers in the era of the Chief Leadership Officer™ (CLO™); the person who is ultimately responsible to position both the organization and people to be leaders in their chosen field and lives, respectively. The Industrial Age rise to power and prominence of the CEO as the top officer in companies is increasingly out-of-sync with serving society. Relative to the narrow focus of the CEO, CLOs are more complete leaders who take profit-making to heart.
At On-Purpose Partners, we’re committed to educating and training CLOs and helping CEOs become CLOs.
During the month of June, 2016, Author Kevin W. McCarthy is offering readers the opportunity to participate in the CLO™ movement and book development by pre-ordering Chief Leadership Officer for as low as $20 for a single book and up to a $100,000 year-long coaching and consulting relationship. Learn More & Please Pre-Order Here.
Download a PDF preview of The Prologue and the first 4 chapters by clicking here: CLO Sample Chapters
The On-Purpose Proverbs are short bits of wisdom that I’ve been writing for over a decade. I keep saying I need to put them in gift book format. But for now, here is one of my favorites about how I define humility for many of my clients:
Humility is knowing self relative to God and understanding which is the greater.
A new friend/colleague asked me to pray for the CEO of his company. The business has been widely successful in recent years with millions of people’s lives touched by their products. Such massive growth, then crisis and now a more stable growth pattern has been a roller coaster of a ride.
My entire life and career it seems I’ve been around CEOs. As a kid I was blessed to attend Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA. (Trivia: I was the last class president when it was an all-boys school.) Many of my friends’ fathers were the Presidents, CEOs and/or Chairman of the Board of major corporations. When you see a CEO running around the house in his underwear asking his wife where she put his pants one naturally learns a different sense of the humanness of the person relative to the power of the position!
In my career I’ve continued to work with CEOs and business leaders of billion dollar businesses and brand new ones. Experience shows me that leaders who have the kind of humility described in this On-Purpose Proverb tend to make wiser decisions. In addition to holding themselves to a higher standard, they tend to decide based more from such strength of self-awareness and knowledge. It isn’t as lonely at the top when one gets humility at the bottom of the soul.
Update: As of 6.1.16 you may Pre-Order the book today at: http://www.clonow.com.
Every business book you’ve read and every class, seminar or workshop you’ve taken over the past 25 years or more was built on the basis of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) being in charge. What if the effectiveness of that foundation is crumbling beneath you at an alarming rate? What will be different in the management and development of organizations? What is the impact on employees? What has to change for you?
In the future, expect your CEO to grow into or be replaced by a person known as a Chief Leadership Officer™ (CLO). This top leader in your organization will have two primary missions:
All the business disciplines you’re accustomed to seeing, such as finance, marketing, operations, etc., will still need to happen. CLOs, however, have a more complete orientation as to the roles and responsibilities of leading enterprise. Whereas CEOs focus on management and administration of the business for shareholder gain, CLOs focus on leading and navigating the company to be a profit-maker true to its purpose.
People in this present Digital Age and the coming Age of Purpose deserve and expect meaningful work, fair compensation, positive working conditions, and respect for their person. CLOs understand that cultivating these measures begins with a clear articulation of organizational purpose and the sincere desire to be positive difference making or contributors to societal improvement.
The Conviction of CEOs
Business leaders have a real problem: they profess innovation but they’re the last to innovate. The financial and human costs are mounting.
Something is wrong, seriously wrong in the state of practical affairs in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations alike. During my decades in business I’ve found the overwhelming majority of my client CEOs, C-Suite teams, managers and employees are good people with a desire to serve the customer while putting in an honest day’s work and then some.
In 2015 Gallup Consulting reported that only 32% of the employees in the U.S. are engaged in their work. This isn’t necessarily an indictment of the employees. One might argue, very rightfully, that when 68% of the workers are disengaged the blame falls at the feet of the executives or employers.
This is only partially accurate. Each shares a measure of the responsibility. If the employee is disengaged then it behooves them to go find work where it is engaging. If the employee base isn’t engaged, then management better look at their On-Purpose Business Plan for deep answers. Normally, however, they’ll take an expedient, more shallow approach and address the obvious points of “blame” such as hiring practices, on-boarding, training and such. When in doubt, blame HR! Sadly, HR is dealing with the symptoms of an under-leading C-Suite. To learn more watch this 9-minute video called: The On-Purpose Business Plan.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is fast becoming the symbol of an antiquated title, mindset, and role that is increasingly missing the mark for profiting business and society … and getting worse by the day. This relic of the Industrial Age in the highest corporate office is the final holdout from innovation.
Our system of doing business, not the people, is broken and out-of-sync with our times. The Industrial Age ways and days of a CEO-run company are coming to a close.
Government intervention in business too often chains the self-correcting mechanism of the free enterprise system making matters only worse. The evidence mounts that more than a technical correction is needed. Such a reformation must come from within business.
What we face is a systemic problem—all of us are affected!
The opportunity is remarkable. Business funds nearly every facet of modern society. The role of commerce and industry in society has never been as powerful and far-reaching. It has also never been as short-sighted and squandering of the available talent and resources.
Those in the workforce are increasingly burned out, bummed out, or checked out. Such a widespread sell-off of dreams and hopes in exchange for a paycheck is killing our souls, all in the name of shareholder value and a flawed understanding of profit.
CLOs get that when The On-Purpose Principle is at work there’s an release of human potential and an unforced pace, productivity and commitment. When a person’s heart is in their work, everything else is so much easier.
Where are the leaders, the pioneering CLOs? Who will arise to lead in the Age of Purpose? On-Purpose Partners is leading this call to be about business differently.
Chief Leadership Officer is a future-facing story making the call for CEOs to replace themselves and become CLOs as the top officer in the company. CLO-led organizations actively elevate the prosperity of society to create win-wins.
Like it or not, being a Chief Leadership Officer (CLO) is what’s next in the career path of the forward-thinking CEO or start-up entrepreneur. Business leaders of tomorrow will operate decidedly different.
This new book is a fast-reading narrative of a sage 100-year-old great-grandfather and his unsettled Millennial great-grandchild, the CEO of a 5-year-old tech firm. Together they launch a hero’s journey to discover a better way to be in business. First they must discover the precepts, promise, and purpose of a new manner and mindset for being in business. Chief Leadership Officer is the embodiment of their work.
Chief Leadership Officer respectfully enters the corner office of CEOs, challenges widely held norms, and calls for self-interested reflection.
Business persons, especially entrepreneurs to CEOs, are invited to embark on their own hero’s journey to take part in a CLO-led reformation. It is a team effort. Every reader has a chance to join the movement, to embrace an emerging manner of being in business today in order to profit tomorrow.
Join The CLO Cause
The CLO message is bigger than me. It needs a bigger platform than I can provide on my own. Chief Leadership Officer will also be a seminal work impacting generations to come. Be a part of breaking new ground and setting a healthier, more wholesome course for people and companies for decades to come.
Starting June 1 and running to June 30, 2016 you can pre-order the book at Publishizer.com, a crowd-funding platform for authors. Funds will go toward production and promotion. There you can download the first few chapters and get a read on the story line.
Write to me. Give me your feedback. This will be a collaborative writing project. Advanced readers will be able to offer insights and ideas that may work their way into the book. Visit www.ChiefLeadershipOfficer.com.
I can readily self-publish this book on my own; but the message is too big for me to handle alone. The book needs the clout, resources, and reach of a traditional publishing house partner. Therefore, I’m seeking a capable and committed publisher who is as visionary and excited as I am about what we can do together. Pre-orders are a form of proof that readers are interested.
Please join me in this cause to positively reform business for this and future generations by pre-ordering the book for future delivery.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
“Making money or making a difference” captures the crux of the dilemma where many a business person lives. It isn’t an “either or” question. It is a “both and” matter. But, when push comes to shove, which way do you lean?
Early in my career I was largely driven to make money. I actually made lots of money at different times, but I lost lots of dollars, too—thanks in large part to an ugly business partnership divorce. My dealings with other money hungry people created a series of get-rich quick efforts that rarely panned out. Finding myself in a couple of ethically compromising situations, my spirit was disturbed and I was not at peace with myself.
I decided that my long-term best strategy for peaceful sleep and health was a wide margin from all borderline business dealings. That was in 1987.
Since the late 1980s, I’ve faithfully nourished the message of purpose and pioneered being On-Purpose® only to see many others leverage (often poorly) the labor and reap the fruit. I’ve held, however, to the scripture that teaches, “The harvest is plentiful. The workers are few,” so I’ve welcomed my co-laborers.
With the release of On-Purpose Peace Fellowship Edition (Christian) and My On-Purpose Folder now I’m sharing my tools with the co-laborers. The live video-conference facilitation I’ll be hosting digs deeper. Come join me and be an on-purpose person in creation.
Back in the late 90s, however, I swung too far to the extreme “making a difference” side of the equation for too many years. I placed at risk my business, finances, and capacity to grow. It made it difficult for my team members. My generosity had personal and family implications as well.
Good News! My investment in others eventually had a “pay day.” The week of April 24–28, 2012, the fruit of my decision came to life in a humbling manner. At On-Purpose Partners we launched The On-Purpose Person on Kindle (http://www.oppkindle.com) with a free promotion, along with a free webcast called The Power of a 2-Word Purpose Statement.
Wow! My family, fans, friends, and clients came through with an outpouring of returned generosity and support. In the first 48 hours, over 13,000 souls downloaded The On-Purpose Person in the Kindle free market. 72 hours later over 32,539 souls had downloaded The On-Purpose Person during the campaign. This rocketed the message to the top of the Kindle free charts:
At the time Julie Holzmann (Discovering Beauty) and I (Being On-Purpose) had worked together for over ten years. She sent me the closing clip of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) from It’s A Wonderful Life. In the scene all of George’s neighbors learn he may have to close the bank and they all pool their money to help. Now I knew what George felt like.
That day on April 24, 2012 as the Kindle e-book download count mounted past 1,000, then 2,000, then 5,000, and Wednesday climbed to 10,000 and 11,000 our George Bailey moment, as Julie so aptly called it, came to life. A few tears have been shed in appreciation and awe since. I could never have imagined that 32,539 souls would ultimately download the e-book.
Our small team here deserves so much credit. Julie works with me on communications. Cheryl helps with the office and keeping track of my easily distracted nature. Mary Tomlinson, my business partner, has taken this message into companies for more than 12 years. Mary Dominguez recognized how to leverage the opportunity with Kindle and brought needed energy and social media effort to the equation. We’ve partnered with technologies from Kudu Publishing, Constant Contact, Xiosoft Instant Teleseminar, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon.com, Apple Inc., 37 Signals, Copyblogger, and more to pull off this launch. My intercessor, Mary R., brought the ultimate in “high” tech—prayer.
The likes of Seth Godin, Rick Radditz, David Bush, Greg Voisen, and Sandy Shugart and more shared the promotion with their email lists. What a team effort.
The generosity of others is the gift that pushed the launch into the 5-figures and top ranking. Too many people to mention here. You know who you are and how your contribution counted.
I pray that you too will have your “It’s A Wonderful Life Moment” and you’ll see the richness of your relationships and how you’re making a difference.
Thanks all for your trust! Be Yourself. Prosper. Make A Difference!
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
Join Kevin W. McCarthy as he facilitates On-Purpose Peace, a 7-week live video conference small group using On-Purpose Peace. Learn more at the On-Purpose Peace website.
Meet Hamlet, our family’s standard poodle who died back in October of 2015. Hamlet was scary smart and we kept expecting him to talk. Looking at me
with his big brownish/gold eyes it was as if he was asking for permission to speak. I’d say to him, “Hamlet, use your words!”—the same statement I would make to our kids in their terrible twos to thwart a temper tantrum.
Hamlet, of course, didn’t talk. Imagine what his and our lives would be like if he could have put it into words. Thank you very much, Dr. Dolittle.
Words are powerful. The most powerful are personal, intimate, informative, revealing, insightful, meaningful, and offer definition and clarity. God created the world by speaking it into being with words (see below). It doesn’t get much more powerful than that!
When reading the writings of others, I so appreciate a turn of phrase that captures exactly what I’m feeling but I couldn’t express in words as succinctly. There’s something refreshing to the soul when a song, poem, or book articulates our spirit and reveals a rare glimpse at ourselves, yet through the eyes and words of another.
Consider the cost of ill-suited words. Words are the sword of the tongue and spirit. This gives rise to wise counsel such as, “Think before you speak.” Words can be hurtful and mean.
Medically speaking, an undiagnosed illness is the absence of the right word. A disease can’t be treated properly or as effectively until it can be identified. Symptoms may be managed, but the cure remains a mystery. To put it into words makes a big difference.
Consider the gains to be had using the right words. The sense of understanding and completion is richly satisfying to the soul. Right words enable right action, productivity, and accomplishment.
Of everything in the universe, the ultimate question of life can only be explained in words. The meaning of life is understood in words because God used words to create the world. The Gospel of John tells us that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Writing your personal purpose statement may seem like it is the act of putting your life into words. In fact, it isn’t that at all. Writing a purpose statement is the audacious attempt to articulate and then harness the supernatural mystery and link between the spiritual and physical realms.
Your purpose, like Jesus, is fully spiritual and fully physical. When the revelation of your purpose comes to light, your sense of your self, your life, your experiences, and more come into an extraordinary focus and context. It is the power of words made personal and authentic.
A true highlight of On-Purpose Peace is writing a 2-word personal purpose statement. This is the beginning of being on-purpose. Imagine what your life would be like if you, unlike Hamlet, could use your words that are written on your heart.
Have you ever tried to break a habit? At best, it is an awkward experience because we take ourselves off of “autopilot” and go into a “manual” mode. Things we didn’t think about … now we do. And when it comes to breaking bad habits, the bad habit can preoccupy our thinking. As a result of this heightened tension, our discomfort is more apparent to us.
Athletes learn to expect that performance may get worse before it gets better when they’re creating a new habit. Progress, not perfection, is the healthy standard of measure. Staying optimistic can be difficult in the midst of change. Remaining positive, however, is a matter of choice. Decide to stay upbeat and you will! You’ll also benefit by focusing on learning instead of “loss.”
Try the AAA Method: AAA = Awareness + Alternatives + Act on it!
Awareness, developing alternatives, and acting upon your better/best intentions (AAA) is preventive medicine for the sanity of the soul.
Habits are defined as acquired behaviors. The implication here is that if we acquire new habits, then we can also dispose of and replace bad ones. Now there’s hope!
It’s easy to imagine our life with the benefits of our new habits. Here are some examples:
Envisioning new life is easy. Making it happen is not so easy! The underlying premise is that we’re capable of far more than we understand or we will push ourselves. That’s why so many people turn to coaches to assist them for accountability as well as training.
I’m a fan of the Discovery Channel series, Surviving the Cut. While each branch of the U.S. military is training its soldiers for different missions, one consistent theme comes across — these soldiers have very real probabilities of facing life and death situations in the field. They need to understand that they are far more capable than they know and understand. Learning to manage fear is part of their job. Rarely are the cadets in real danger. Therefore, to a large degree the mental challenges exceed the physical hardship.
Your self talk matters. If you identify yourself with words like failure, slob, worthless, insignificant, wasteful or stupid, then you’re pronouncing lies into your present and carrying them into your future. To what benefit is this? Now that you’re Aware — Stop!
Come up with a list of Alternatives for your identity: successful, neat, worthy, significant, thrifty, and smart.
Now Act on them. If you don’t act on them then they’ll never develop and be fully assimilated in your life. This is the essence of personal leadership — the ability to turn it around by yourself or by having the humility to get the help you need.
Purpose and Passion
Personal motivation — a compelling reason, a why, a purpose — combined with a willingness to pay the price — passion — defines the outcome. That said, extraordinary moments of truth emerge in the midst of the ordinary that test our purpose against our progress. Positive thoughts may get us started but will they sustain us? We choose!
No matter the outcome, you’re learning about you! Knowledge is powerful when put to good use, such as your self talk. So even if you don’t accomplish what you set out to do, you’re learning something new about yourself. Use your Awareness to develop an Alternative strategy that you Act upon (The AAA Method).
Moments of truth appear in our self talk: good and bad. Let’s not go down the self-deceptive path of mindless affirmations, positive talk, or positive mental attitude. Be real with yourself.
Get to the guts of the matter, the real inner conversation. The ones haunted by doubt, fear, anger, discouragement, disappointment, and hopelessness. Be equipped to choose to win which is why I encourage you to put the AAA Method to work when your self talk becomes self-defeating.
It is like there’s a debate team living inside you. Who will win? How’s your self talk coming along? Use the AAA Method to intervene on behalf of your new, better habit. You’ll be on-purpose and better for it.
Recommended Reading: Read Pat Pearson’s book STOP Self Sabotage. I like the way this lady thinks. She brings great depth to the topic. She’s a casual business acquaintance so I can personally say that I have respect for her work.
What if you had a volunteer sales force spreading the word about your goods and services? Would your business grow? Of course it would. Unfortunately too many of us who are small business or solo owners aren’t clear in our minds about who we are, our ideal on-purpose customer, and our value proposition. In fact, we may not even have a workable mechanism to get paid for our goods and services.
You’re a few short questions away from having a sales force of people recommending your business and getting the sales growth you want. Write out your answer to The 3 Knows:
Equip people to help you build your business and be willing to ask for their help.
Try this sales growth exercise to see how on-purpose your team is. Ask your 
sales team and sales support to respond to The 3 Knows above. Compare results and candidly assess how much alike or different the responses are. This will help you gauge just how clearly communicate the core sales growth strategy is for your business.
Another option is to ask five customers or clients to respond. You’ll learn a lot about how easy it is for people to refer or recommend you.
A sure way to kill your sales growth (and business) is to blame the economy. Here’s an easy target for slumping sales. The only problem is that it is a distracting and useless exercise. Blame is a losing strategy. You don’t control the economy. U.S. Presidents think they do, but they don’t. Instead focus on items that are under your control and that help to increase sales growth. You do have a degree of control over your economy. Answer The 3 Knows.
Tough times are even tougher especially when we allow ourselves to get distracted from what we do best. In my engagements with business owners, sales persons, entrepreneurs, and executives with P&L responsibility, their greatest challenges are almost always self-inflicted. They just don’t know what they don’t know.
That’s the value of a business advisor, especially one who isn’t an industry insider. We see your business differently. We ask questions. We don’t assume to understand. We’re curious to find out what’s working, what isn’t, and why.
Use the season of a sluggish economy to strengthen the business by focusing on what is on-purpose. Again the 3 Knows matter big time here.
Test the first of the 3 Knows. Ask someone what they do. Chances are they’ll offer up their title or role, e.g. “I’m a banker,” “I’m a salesperson,” “I’m a health coach,” “I’m a business owner.”
So what?
This lazy response reflects an underlying strategic issue of identity confusion. Don’t expect people to understand what it is you do.
Create your DoDo Dialogue. Here’s a fast, easy way to more rapidly and meaningfully engage a volunteer word-of-mouth sales force to send you referrals and recommendations. All because you “bothered” to make their understanding of what you do easily memorable, relatable, and frankly, more exciting. Don’t network for business. Instead, go to equip your volunteer sales force. By the way, be sure to ask them about their 3 Knows first. You’ll have your turn to share.
Watch your sales grow as you equip and inform rather than network and hand out business cards.
