Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

alignment

Is Your Work Working?

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How does one meaningfully align and engage one’s heart in his or her work?

Is work truly just a job or is it an expression of something deeper?

The On-Purpose® Principle (Pp<=>Po) is about “The purpose of the person (Pp) aligned with the purpose of the organization (Po).” Today, let’s further dissect The On-Purpose Principle up close and personal.

By the way, the Purpose of the Organization doesn’t just refer to a business. A marriage, family, hospital, agency, team, department, church, or club are just a few examples of the many organizations where this is applicable.

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So how do you make your work work?

The clean and clear articulation of your purpose is the starting point. After that, decide to infuse your purpose into your decisions and actions. Your thoughts, spiritual posture, and language will begin the shifting or (to borrow a sailing term) “coming about” to catch the full strength and flow for the design of your life.

The difference is like bumping along in your car on a washboard dirt road versus getting on the interstate. The car and driver are the same but your life is on a smooth track.

All organizational development is within The On-Purpose Principle.

If you stay on the surface of it, the simplicity of this “equation” can deceive you. Ponder it for a bit, and you’ll discover that almost all of leadership and management theory is fundamentally attempting to create high alignment and integration of the purpose of the person with the purpose of the organization.

So if you truly seek to be a leader of your life and a person others would follow, invest some time to understand The On-Purpose Principle. You can read more about it in The On-Purpose Business Person.

Who Cares About Leading The Business?

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Leading the business carries responsibilities. Being aPurpose of Organization business advisor and strategic management consultant for more than a couple of decades, I can tell you the single, simplest, most overlooked root of more problems in organizations is the failure to articulate, communicate, and execute based on the purpose of the organization (Po). Its absence is massively expensive; its presence nourishes the corporate culture for productive and efficient growth in people and profits.

Someone in charge, however, has to care. Is that you who is leading the business?

This lack of deep strategic clarity muddles every aspect of the organization. People, process, performance, profits, customer service, and operations are just a few of the functional areas informed by a potent, simple, 2-word purpose statement. 

Yet, purpose statements are amazingly misunderstood, unappreciated, and under-engaged. In businesses, I’ve seen the benefit of the leadership team knowing and executing on their purpose produce a 25% or more increase in sales and even greater percentage increases in profits. 

Are you finally ready to set a strategic cornerstone and write your purpose statement? Remember, it is just a beginning but an essential start. I recommend that all business clients first write their personal purpose statement before they do the business statement.

 

What Does It Mean to Be On-Purpose?

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The On-Purpose® Approach is best understood by reading my books The On-Purpose Person and The On-Purpose Business.  They provide a fundamental understanding of this movement of hearts into meaningful action.  Nothing else in the marketplace provides such a broad, yet integrated lifestyle.

On-Purpose® is a holistic and integrated lifestyle advocating the fullness of life.
On-Purpose® is a method with everyday tools to build a life, a career, or a business.
On-Purpose® is a point of view that life and work are by design and meaningful.
On-Purpose® is a light turned on to shine into the darkness of the heart of one’s heart.
On-Purpose® is a way to answer The Great Questions of Life.
On-Purpose® is to live with intention and personal accountability within a larger fellowship.
On-Purpose® is to know one’s purpose and to align one’s life with that purpose.
On-Purpose® is living a called life, instead of a driven life.
On-Purpose® is spiritual in that it answers the deepest longings for significance and belonging.
On-Purpose® is hopeful, positive, and relevant to contemporary challenges.
On-Purpose® is shalom from the Jewish concept of peace that comes from being one with God.
On-Purpose® is to clearly know one’s identity in Christ and to joyfully live in this manner.
On-Purpose® is to seek God first and to center one’s life on The Great Commandment.
On-Purpose® is seeking to meet us where we are and to live as Jesus did in his day.
On-Purpose® is the alignment of your heart, head, and hands within your highest values.
On-Purpose® is practical because it can be lived long term and moment to moment.
On-Purpose® is giving from strength even in times of weakness.
On-Purpose® is the difference in people who make a difference™.