The Professor of On-Purpose
It is hard to see ourselves for how we really are.
I address it in this On-Purpose Business Minute.
Have you ever been led by a solid core leader? Count your blessings!
It doesn’t mean they aren’t successful. It means they generally aren’t as successful as they could be. In a moment of candor, most of us will tell you that we’re plowing into virgin territory regularly. And what we’re doing for continuing education is generally a hodgepodge from a variety of sources.
A great solution is to join a peer learning group. More on those later in this post.
If you own a business and you don’t understand the foundations of business, then you’re likely functioning at 50% or less of your potential. Where else can you get an ROI (return on investment) like that for such little effort and energy expended?
Most management and business training tend to be job specific or skills related. Overlooked are the fundamental concepts of business, the free enterprise system, and basics of what is called “general management” and business leadership. It is expensive to learn the basics of business.
Most businesses are built by—as Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
For years I’ve asked the question, “How did you learn how to do business?” The typical response is “School of Hard Knocks.” In other words, trial and error is the teacher—a cruel one at that. Check out the results of this small study I conducted with attendees of a previous webinar. (click on it to see a full-size version)
A small percentage of people have undergraduate business degrees or an MBA.Candidly, as a man with both an undergraduate business degree (BS from Lehigh University) and an MBA (University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business Administration), I’ll confess my college degrees prepared me with concepts, tools, language, and business context. They didn’t, however, turn me into a businessman. Degrees accelerate learning but they don’t make the person quite like being on the job does. We can’t avoid the School of Hard Knocks, but we can be prepared to learn the lessons faster, smarter, and less hard.
What are some of the ways to improve as a business person?
ug coming … Read The On-Purpose Business Person and The On-Purpose Person. Together they lay the groundwork for leading a business and leading your life.Here are some recommended resources for peer learning groups:
So there’s my short list of recommendations for bolstering your business skills, concepts, and relationships. If you are serious about growing your business to the next level, then run, don’t walk to find yourself a peer learning group.
Fortune 1000 company CEOs and small start-up business owners who have yet to make $1,000 often share the same problem—a business struggling to succeed. Economic conditions can definitely have an effect.
Business problems due to lack of sales revenue are most often addressed at the surface level—”We need a new website, lower prices, more salespeople, and so forth.” Sales and marketing are obvious places to look by the entrepreneur or even seasoned CEO.
Business solutions like these are where hordes of consultants and advisors earn their fees. Most often they are well earned and justified.
My experience as a business advisor for CEOs of multi-billion dollar companies and one person start-ups tells me that these tactical plans and approaches to problem businesses are often futile. It leaves the business struggling and focused on the wrong activities, even if well intended.
If the basic business design, model, and plan have flaws then the entire business is off the mark. The larger the business, the more it lives within the corporate culture—for better or worse. Even a small defect at the core of the business can be expensive.
If something is missing in your business … it is probably here!
2. Do This: STOP! = Start Thinking On-Purpose!
How to do that: Try this simple exercise. Write down your “truths” about your business. This could include your assumptions about your customers, the market conditions, what it takes to sell, the benefits and features of your product or service, costs, the quality of your team or delivery … you get the idea. Jot down what you hold as a reality or truth in your business. These are your assumptions and concepts.
Next, take your list to two or three people outside your industry and ask them to review the list and to tell you their take on your observations plus their thoughts and perceptions. Avoid defensiveness. Wear your R&D and market research hat and listen—don’t tell—and just ask.
Finally, interview a few customers or targeted prospects to learn if your truths are reality or simply impressions that constrain your business development and growth. Ponder it and then adjust accordingly!
Profit-making has a bad rap.
Truth be told, greed is an attitude of the heart that is often revealed in business but isn’t inherent to being in business.
If your heart’s desire is to truly be of service to others, then greed is likely not going to be your problem. Your challenge is just the opposite—you run so far from the appearances of greed that you overdeliver and undercharge so often that your business is hanging by a thread. Check your mindset and see if I’m right!
This On-Purpose Business Minute may be just the message you need to hear to awaken you that it isn’t your marketing, sales force, or operations that needs the adjustment—it is your internal posture about profits in need of repair.
Click on text for more information about the On-Purpose Small Business Package
The desire to make a positive difference is the sweet, soulful heart of ambition. In contrast is blind ambition that tramples all in its path to accomplish an end, perhaps even a noble end at that, which is fraught with unhealthy costs. Much of this rests on your view of people.
Which will mark your life, career, and legacy?
Herein lies the rub for many a business person. To what lengths are you willing to go to realize your ambitions?
Results, especially in the form of company sales and profits, are outward and tangible measures of success. Measurable signs, however, tell just a portion of the story. If you want to know the full story, ask the people along the way who helped to produce the results.
Here’s a painful example. For 12 months spanning 2008 to 2009, I worked nearly full time with a CEO client to author a book that codified his corporate culture, leadership development moves, and business strategy for internal use. Intending for the company to go public via IPO, the book also targeted Wall Street analysts and investors so they could readily grasp what truly made this company great.
The IPO market at that time dried up with the challenges in the economy. Instead, the company was purchased by a national competitor for $130 million. By the CEO’s own admission, the book helped them get more than $15 million in greater value for shareholders over the IPO price, plus they kept their name, and the CEO was offered the position of President over the merged companies.
“Wow!” you may be thinking, “That CEO had to be a happy man.” You would think so. Eight months after delivery of the manuscript, a client satisfaction clause I wrote into the contract was used to deny issuing me an “earned” six-figure stock bonus despite personal assurances from the CEO to the contrary. My concern for my client’s satisfaction and best interests was used against me. Ouch! That hurts on so many levels.
Just because one can take advantage of another person, does that mean one should? Best-selling books on the art of war and being a prince would say go for it. But I say there’s nothing noble in selfishness and greed. True nobility is knowing one has the upper hand and using it to raise up the other person instead of jamming them down further.
The deeper value is seeing people as being above things. Translation: relationships are greater than transactions. Results with responsibilities and citizenship can coexist and produce true greatness.
For a couple of decades I’ve worked with my CEO clients to get them to stop saying things like, “Our people are our greatest asset.” Assets are bought and sold as in slavery. Relating people to assets dehumanizes them and places them on par with the photocopier. By the way, the investment in the photocopier maintenance agreement often far exceeds the equivalent “maintenance agreement” for the people in training, development, and benefits. How sad is that!
Along this same line, the term Human Resources certainly isn’t endearing and doesn’t advance the cause of people as human beings. Resources is just another name for commodities or assets that are traded, discarded, and otherwise moved about indiscriminately. The Human Resources Department is a blind co-conspirator in the loss of human identity and dignity. Instead, rename the department to something like, “People Development” or “Talent Management” but not “human resources.” It is degrading.
I hold no delusions of grandeur that either the perfect person or company graces the face of the planet. Self-serving serpents slither the planet preying on others. We are all capable of being this way, yet deep within our spirit we yearn to a higher self, call, and standard. We’re better to aspire and fail than to have no aspiration at all.
Gazing with admiration upon the shells of “successful” men and women may provide inspiration, but it tends to deliver little instruction. You know better. Get the true back story from the secretaries, bookkeepers, janitors, clerks, delivery persons, and cafeteria workers in corporate headquarters. Look at their personal life. Are their personal lives as captivating as their business headlines? You’ll soon discern whether the person capturing the headlines and your attention is gold-plated or 24 karat solid gold.
Do this: Whether you’re leading your life, a team, or a business, you need to decide: Ambition, at what price? Knowing your purpose and defining your values is a great start to building a life and a career where you can put your head to your pillow at night and sleep soundly.
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Here are some famous quotes about money for your consideration and amusement.
“Money makes the world go around.” 
From the song Money (Watch the performance!) in the Broadway play Cabaret sung by Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
1 Timothy 6
“A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.”
“Get all you can [money], without hurting your soul, your body, or your neighbor. Save all you can, cutting off every needless expense. Give all you can.”
“With money in your pocket, you are wise and you are handsome and you sing well, too.”
Yiddish Proverb
Image via Wikipedia
Last Tuesday, I asked in the On-Purpose Minute, "Do You Feel Like A Failure?" This week we go to the other end of the spectrum — success. Reaching this place in life opens us to new vistas and responsibilities. How will you mature into your place of leadership?
I have to imagine that Phil Mickelson is relishing his moment of success in winning his third green jacket at the Masters golf tournament. A friend of mine, Johan Immelman's son, Trevor, won it a couple of years ago. I've met Trevor and he exudes the qualities of a man with good parenting.
Kevin W. McCarthy is the author of The On-Purpose Person and The On-Purpose Business. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the meaningful integration of life and work. More than just an author, Kevin is a natural leader in business and civic endeavors. Kevin’s goal with audiences is to stir their hearts, advance their thinking, and inspire them to action.
He is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, the CEO of On-Purpose Partners, and a highly respected business advisor for middle market organizations and a personal coach to CEOs, Executive Directors, and Company Presidents. Authentic, original, good humored, and engaging are the qualities most often attributed to this thought leader by his peers, clients, and audiences. He has traveled from Hungary to Hawaii since 1992 inspiring audiences as he carries the message of being on-purpose into the hearts, minds, and lives of people.
Kevin’s intelligent and easy speaking style mixes light and spontaneous humor with a life-changing message and stories. His uplifting keynote addresses and programs appeal to those with true aspirations and more responsibilities than time. These people long to make a difference through ethically building a business, career, and life of significance. There’s an authentic spirit to his words and way that captivates audiences.
Kevin shows up at the event to work. He invests himself in your event and people. Every engagement is tailored to the audience, company, and industry at hand. Not one to “show and go,” Kevin considers it a privilege to reasonably meet and greet your participants, to sign books, and to answer questions. He wants to bring value to your event.
To learn more, please call our office at 407.657.6000.
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