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Are You In The Midst of A Tough Shift™? (part 2)

April 17, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Are You In The Midst of a Tough Shift (part 1)

A Tough Shift™ happens when we’re not making a smooth and peaceful transition personally, professionally, and/or corporately.

Often these transformations are due to a change in the environment beyond our control and we’re reactive.

Sometimes, however, we proactively choose to take the bull by the horns in order to improve our situation, life, or business. Either way, it is a risk that’s not easy but a decision that’s designed to hopefully improve our station or circumstance in life.

An essential element of any tough shift is the ability to have a firm grasp on reality. Hindrances such as denial, blame, and fear cloud our progress. The management of personal growth is a core life leadership skill to develop.

Businesses Go Through Tough Shifts

The On-Purpose Business Plan provides key links from deep strategy to customer satisfaction. Here both the science of business and the art of leadership come together to create an integrated, living organism or culture. On-Purpose^® has been leading this charge since the late 1980s. In recent years, the trend toward a more human and humane approach to business has emerged. Most company leaders, however, are stuck in the midst of their own Tough Shift. The old ways don’t give in to the new ways easily.

If you’ve read The On-Purpose Business Person, you’ll recall that there are “the man” and “the old man.” Here the classic battle is played out in this modern parable. Here the four pillars of an on-purpose business create the corners of building a business true to the past yet responsive to the future:

The On-Purpose Principle: Aligning the Purpose of the Person with the Purpose of the Organization
Think Inc!: Leading like the owner of the business — 100% responsibility
The Service Model: Closing the gap from purpose to performance to serve customers and beyond
The Manner: Do More of What You Do Best More Profitably

The Really Tough Shifts are Shifts in Culture

To illustrate the point on a large scale, the United States of America is in the midst of a tough shift over the prevailing culture of the country. The centerpiece of such a battle would appear to be opposing political parties and ideals. Below the political bickering is a war waging over what is the contemporary role of the U.S. Constitution — the “deep strategy” for the country. This fight is not just between the Democrats and Republicans—it is within each party as well.

Putting aside politics and looking at this from a strategy lesson point of view we can broadly see

The Constitutional conservatives revere the founder’s intent and take to heart the oath of office.
Living Constitutionalists see the document as a living, breathing document that offers structures but needs regular amending to conform to contemporary needs.
Populists see the Constitution as an impeding relic of the past that hobbles efforts to serve the people.

And so the child-like bickering across all candidates continues on the surface versus the depth of matters at a root level. Governing is serious business—whether it is running a country, a business, or one’s life. At some point, the adults in the room need to be in charge.

A former business partner of mine was keen to observe, “They’re looking at the hole instead of the doughnut”—his folksy way of saying people are focused on the unimportant … and it isn’t just in Washington, DC. Look in the mirror and see if your dissatisfaction with DC isn’t simply a projection of your personal dissatisfaction with yourself thrown onto an easy target.

Do you see why being On-Purpose so profoundly matters to your way of life? If you’re in a Tough Shift, don’t blame Washington, the economy, your past, or whatever else you can conjure as an excuse. It is unbecoming to you because it keeps you from becoming the true you.

Purpose Is Unchanging

Your purpose is the one place where opposing forces have the best chance to agree, or at least agree to disagree, hopefully agreeably. Purpose is this seemingly distant place from everyday life, yet this is where performance is birthed. When purpose, vision, missions, and values are confused, then the country or company (or person) are sure to be as well. Yet most discussions in businesses center around tactics in the absence of agreement about what is really most important … to inform the tactics.

Managers tend to see changes in the marketplace and the business needing to respond to such shifts strategically. Adjustments to the business of the business are much more about the science of business. Most are fairly straightforward patterns to those of us who have been around the block for a few decades or more.

For example, things are stirring at On-Purpose Partners. We help our clients to make decisions that are on-purpose. We do this as a business advisory firm by clarifying deep business strategy, design, and strategic story to feed into the corporate culture and business brand to merge into a more fully integrated customer experience (see the On-Purpose Business Plan).

A few years ago, I felt called to re-invest my time and focus on the personal leadership aspects of the business. We’ve always been about leadership—helping our client companies and individual coaching clients to be leaders in their field/industry or life, respectively. People are the essential distinctive to any organization. Healthy people are more likely to create a healthy business, period.

The world needs to be on-purpose. After over 25 years of developing all this content and writing books, we’re poised and positioned for remarkable service around The On-Purpose Principle—aligning the purpose of the person with the purpose of the organization. It is exciting, yet a tough shift filled with financial risks. I’ve been at work on this tough shift within our business for the last couple of years. Frankly, it has been slower than I anticipated, yet better than I expected. You can expect to see more offerings for individuals to be on-purpose across the world. Yes, the vision of “Every Person On-Purpose” or The On-Purpose Planet continues to inspire me.

Hopefully, today’s Tough Shift point of view has stirred some thinking for you to ponder about your life, your business, or your country.

Bottom line: These Tough Shifts are tough! I welcome your prayers and thoughts.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

Is Your Career In The Midst of A Tough Shift™?

February 8, 2018 By kwmccarthy

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! And, you’re not alone.

Stock market volatility, technology changes, and the gig economy might have you considering other career options.

When the U.S. 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 worldwide 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.

Is now the time to explore starting a business?

It can be an intimidating undertaking but there are many options to explore out there. For decades I’ve worked with business start-ups to design, advise, and guide the growth and development of the business plan and leader.

Don’t go it alone.

Find a business advisor or mentor who can see clearly into your blind spots. Yes, you’ll invest a few dollars, but you’ll gain time to market and create a more profitable and better working operation. There are no short-cuts to business creation, but why add unnecessary delays and detours out of your own inexperience?

So while you’re looking for a job you can be creating one, too … for yourself. Who knows, you may never have to go to work for someone else again!

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?

Do You Want to Grow into Maturity?

November 28, 2017 By kwmccarthy

What does it mean to be a grownup, to mature, or to assume adult behavior?

Sadly, far too many adult women and men haven’t a clue what it means to act, live, and be an adult. The process of growing into maturity eludes them.

We men, in particular, seem slow to grow into the responsibilities of manhood. It has less to do with the physiology of aging and more to do with psychology and social norms. Matters like avoidance of responsibilities and lack of clarity around modern male roles complicate it and make it that much easier to put off being a man.

Perhaps the story of Peter Pan is too taken to heart and we’ve decided to “Never Grow Up.”

Women suffer from lack of maturity as well. My mother is in a retirement living situation where the women outnumber the men probably 3 to 1. When I speak with the female staff about many of the senior women, they tell tales of a new man arriving on the scene and it is like junior high girls bickering and posturing.

What a loss!

We can’t really be a very fully engaged on-purpose player when we’re living below our maturity level.

When our identity is tied to something other than our purpose, we’re subject to the whims of the world or the mercurial nature of other people’s opinions about us.

Maturity, like anything worthwhile, begins with a decision to grow up.

Yes, it takes practice, often a mentor or coach, and the desire to keep at it. And work and emotional management! Practice does pay off. The rewards of maturity are to live into the life designed for us and to make a greater contribution with our life.

Seek out a mentor, life coach, or counselor with whom you can create a structured relationship for personal leadership growth and development. This intentional approach and relationship provide the benefits of accountability, fresh perspective, and experience.

On-Purpose Partners can help with On-Purpose Peace through Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or Do-It-Right (DIR) with one of our coaches.

If you want to learn something new, then invest in becoming a more mature and capable person.

Take one step toward being more responsible for yourself. Then another step, then another. Soon you’ll discover that growing up isn’t such a big deal if you take care of the small deals along the way.

On-Purpose Tip: The process within The On-Purpose Person provides a methodology to better answer some of Life’s Great Questions about our identity and place in the world. If you don’t know who you are, then you’ll likely overcompensate by living life either too small or too large. The posing can become a preoccupation instead of being about your true occupation.

Stop wasting your years! Decide to grow up.

What Are Your Answers To Life’s Great Questions?

September 3, 2013 By kwmccarthy

Dare You Risk Leading Your Life Better?

The On-Purpose Leader Experience Early Bird Savings End Sept. 4

Click the links at the bottom of this post and the discounts will already be applied.

Here they are: The 7 Great Questions about life that haunt us until we answer them, deny them, or simply overwhelm them in a soulless chase for gain and/or pleasure.

Who am I?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
How will I get there?
What is important?
Is life meaningful?
Does God exist?

You may think, With all I have to get done, I realistically don't have time to mess with these questions. Here's a tip for life: until you begin answering these questions, they will mess with your life. The sooner you start, the better off you'll be.

Don't put your life on hold until you have definitive answers. Simply, explore your possibilities. Make it a joyous adventure of daily discovery as the layers of your life unfold before you with a sense of wonder and excitement.

Think it's impractical with all you've got going on? Hardly! There's a hard dollar cost to being off-purpose that is costing you in very real terms. Stop wasting your life in trivial pursuits.

Answers to these questions fill in the soul gaps—those places within us that we know are there, but aren't quite sure we want to or know how to get there. It can be a scary place to visit, like a closet of dashed hopes, painful memories, unrealized dreams, disappointments, and pain. On the other hand, it is also a journey of hope and healing to the heart of who you authentically are. Here's the only place on the planet where you can discover your true identity and begin the process of re-orienting your life on the strength, function, and contribution you have to give. Transformation begins in the spirit. Knowing and bringing expression to your purpose will raise the spiritual and practical trajectory of your life forever.

The On-Purpose Leader Experience starts with you. Come as you are. None of us have it together. We're all dysfunctional to some degree. Let the one who doesn't have a measure of chaos, confusion, hurt, distress, worry, or pain cast the first stone.

Join this six-week conversation (Sept. 24 – Oct. 29) that includes peer-to-peer interactions, phone and online on-purpose coaching from me, and more. Once a week we have a 30-40-minute live webcast that is recorded for replay later. You'll walk the steps of the man in The On-Purpose Person. You will:

Connect with on-purpose persons in creation in our private social network: The On-Purpose Planet
Write your two-word purpose statement
Clarify your core wants
Identify your TOP Want
Participate in live webcasts with me
Have access to webcast replays 24/7
Develop a meaningful time management approach
Get answers to the 7 Questions above

Here's a fun, easy-to-do, and efficient way to sound deeply into the spirit of who you are. What's more, you'll be creating systems and strategies that will save you time, help you to make better decisions, and eliminate costly detours. The upside is amazing. You'll discover: