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!
“How can I be a better leader?” is a question I am regularly asked by clients and audience members at speaking engagements. Leadership development is 1 of 3 competencies to master to increase one’s contribution and call to service.
By understanding and applying this concept to your life and work, you’ll see that authentic leadership comes naturally rather than being a forced effort.
To become a leader, become a better you by beginning with knowing your purpose in life—your inherent worth and reason for being that live in your heart. Your purpose is an amazing gift too often buried under layers of doubt, pride, wounds, and challenges. Rather than seeing these layers as prevention from getting you to know who you really are, what if they are protection and preparation for just this time in your life to really understand the power of your two-word purpose, and being on-purpose?
Once you know your purpose, it will not be denied in spite of obstacles and setbacks. It works toward expression and contribution. The only person, circumstance, or condition that can stifle it is you.
Take 100% responsibility for being on-purpose (Think Inc!). Even in the worst of circumstances, you won’t get caught up in the blame game which distracts and chokes the pathway to being on-purpose.
Let’s take to the whiteboard for insights and practical application of the On-Purpose® Principle so you can create high alignment of your personal purpose with your organizational purpose. That’s how you can create peak or TOP performance as a leader of your life and work.
Keep the On-Purpose® Principle in mind, and you’ll discover that your matters in business, psychology, or management just got a whole lot easier and cheaper to understand and lead.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
P.S. Want to read and learn more about The On-Purpose® Principle? Order The On-Purpose Business Person by clicking here or buying it from amazon.com.
Leaders tend to have catch phrases that direct their behavior and decisions. But what if these guiding “principles” are more style than substance when it comes to truly leading one’s life?
That’s the advice given to many a rising leader. But is it valid, or is this just the mythology of being a “strong” leader? Then again, does a truly strong leader have anything to hide?
The pride of not letting others see you sweat risks closing you off to having a mentor and becoming boorishly self-referenced instead of formed and informed by the diverse views of others.
Proverbs says, “Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Sometimes the sparks flying is exactly what’s needed.
Actor Jack Nicholson starred in the movie A Few Good Men as Col. Nathan R. Jessep. In the movie he utters the famous line, “You can’t handle the truth!” in a display of arrogance stemming from a fear of exposure.
In controversial situations, the easy way is to posture or parse a reply that caters to the audience to please the other person. To be authentic, however, may mean that you’ll pay a small price now for your candor, but down the road you’ll not have to pay the higher price from a lack of sincerity.
Then you can stand on firm ground to speak and act in a manner that is true to how you are and what you believe … and let the chips fall where they may.
To be an authentic leader requires us to know what is truly important to us. Invest in yourself to learn who you are and leading will more naturally follow.
“You need to set goals.” In business and in life we’ve all heard those words. It is hard to argue with the advice. It seems so simple. Yet for all the talk of goal setting, how effective is it really?
But it is part of a process, not the ends and means unto itself.
Several years ago the CEO of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company hired me to help revive the business. As he said to me, “Kevin, we need a crusade. Something we can believe in that’s bigger than our day-to-day.”
During my on-site time at the company headquarters, I met with the Director of Worldwide Strategy. In gathering initial information, I asked this question: “What are your income and profit goals for this year?”
That’s normally not a challenging question. Except here I was met with the answer, “We don’t have any goals like that.” This was a stunning revelation to me. How could they not have goals?
I promise you that the point of this On-Purpose Business Minute is an endorsement for setting reasonable goals but within the context of a strategic planning process. In my client’s case, it had me wondering just what the heck the Director of Worldwide Strategy was doing. He wasn’t happy to see me show up in the first place and now this question ensured a sabotage was in the works. He won!
It is the natural time of the year for reflection and planning so the new year can be better than the previous year. There’s a reason why, however, all those good intentions often fail to live up to expectations. Business can’t be run by numbers alone. Metrics have a role, but they’re the result of a strategic process, not the lead.
This form of “Management By Objectives” was made popular in the 1970s. However well intended it was, the execution of it fell to a minimalist “numbers only” approach. Unfortunately, that is an indication of under-performing management.
You know the routine. You show up at an organizational retreat for work, church, the PTA, a ministry, or some other group. After the introductions, the person with the agenda says it is time to set goals.
Suddenly a knot appears in your stomach. Something about this doesn’t feel just right. You go with it because goal setting seems so right … and yet so wrong. After an hour or so, the team comes up with a list of goals and everyone goes home satisfied that a great deal was accomplished. And it has, but you have this gnawing feeling that very little is really going to happen next.
Why, you wonder, is it so unsatisfactory? Why is the group so excited, yet you’re so worried? You understand that goals without a plan are merely imaginary—but still better than no goals at all! Regardless of whether the organization is falling short or falling flat on its face, it is failing to complete the strategic process. That means that someone in charge doesn’t really know what it means to lead an organization. Uh-oh—Killer Goals of the worst kind.
Here’s an example from when we were in active production of The On-Purpose Minutes. Our killer goal was to produce and post an original On-Purpose Minute every Tuesday and an On-Purpose Business Minute every Thursday.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Hold on for an On-Purpose Minute! Consider the creative thinking, planning, equipping, and many disciplines needed to meet this simple “killer goal.” I invested nearly a year in researching, experimenting, and learning what camera, lighting, and editing software to use. In the end, the technical and production stuff is actually the easy part.
The concepts and brand of the On-Purpose Minutes had to be conceived, developed, and tied to the business strategy of On-Purpose®. An audience to reach had to be in mind. Finally, the content for each On-Purpose Minute had to be conceived, written, recorded, edited, posted, and embedded using YouTube.com and my blogging service.
Here’s one example where a Killer Goal with a clear purpose, plan, people, and process to support performance produced a video library of over 200 Minutes.
Take your leadership and management duties seriously so your team can thrive and exceed its goals. Learn to think more deeply about the breadth and depth of the assignment.
The more you can talk about and plan early on, the better things will go for all involved.
Learn that the slow path to achieving your goals is almost always the sustainable and more profitable fast track for reaching your Killer Goals.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
Are You In The Midst of a Tough Shift (part 1)
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.
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:
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
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.
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.
Bottom line: These Tough Shifts are tough! I welcome your prayers and thoughts.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
Be clear about which one works and works for you.
Over the years, clients have engaged On-Purpose Partners to assess and design their sales architecture, often with 
On-Purpose® being foundational content. Such engagements demand a blend of
One of the first design decisions to assess is if the client’s business, mindset, and preference is for building a prospecting or a farming sales approach.
As a keynote speaker to sales organizations at conferences and conventions, I’ve learned to psych out their leanings early. Whether it be an insurance, real estate, or direct sales organization, there are similarities and differences in their cultures and approaches; yet these two generalized worldviews on selling remain staples of the selling process.
Corporate executives set the tone but often a product or service defines the sales approach. Generally, if a company is in manufacturing or is technology oriented, they tend to favor the prospecting approach mentioned in this On-Purpose Business Minute. Customers are part of the “human resources” supply chain of logistics and transactions. Here people are deployed to meet business objectives by digging out customers.
This longer-term view of people sees a long tail of repeat sales and referrals in the context of the lifelong value of a customer. It affects commitment and investment in planning, people, operations and, ultimately, customer service standards and training.
Salespeople as farmers or prospectors are typically engaged in very similar activities of making sales calls, gathering information, preparing presentations, and closing deals. Astute salespeople readily assess the best approach for a particular book of business. If you find yourself scratching your head wondering what the higher-ups are thinking, then there is a good chance they are (or you are) oblivious to the culture they’re creating in the field. They’re prospecting for immediate nuggets of sales while you’re growing a crop of relationships and caring for a soil of the relationship … or vice versa.
Years ago, a friend came to me ready to pull his hair out by the roots. He loved where he worked as an admissions representative at a private vocational college. The problem was he is a farmer and he was being measured as a prospector. Every phone call, email, and piece of mail was measured and accrued to his measurement system.
Together we designed a simple tool to engage student candidates into a conversation instead of an information session. At great risk to his metrics, his call volume went down, his mailings decreased, and his number of “contacts” declined. The first month, his boss was all over him for non-performance. However, by the second month, his admissions soared to the number 3 spot of all reps—an achievement he had never before attained. Within 3 months, he was leading all reps and out-distancing them. Soon two reps approached him and asked what he was doing differently. Within a month all three of them held the top 3 positions.
This story isn’t to propose that prospecting is bad. On the contrary, it is to say that the culture and the sales culture didn’t match and the results were impoverished by comparison to a proper match.
By the way, the story gets even better. In time, the leadership altered the system to reflect a farming approach that was people-centric. Under the “prospecting” approach, student turnover (withdrawals from the college) was very high. With the “farming” approach, admitted students tended to stay in place. This was an unexpected bonus, but an intuitive result.
The point of this On-Purpose Business Minute for the executives, VPs of Marketing & Sales, and Sales Managers is to assess your industry, company, and culture. Decide which approach is best suited to creating the customer experience you wish to deliver. Armed with this information, evaluate your company language, alignment, and operations to see if you’re on-purpose or not.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
In this On-Purpose® Business Minute, let’s explore a structural reality that affects on-the-job performance, often negatively. It need not be so if one is simply willing to see the job differently and Think Inc!—the mindset of being a line leader even if you have a staff job.
When you’ve had a lousy customer service experience it is most often because someone wasn’t willing to make a decision or someone else away from the situation had created a broad, inflexible policy. There’s little worse than having a customer service person (staff person) cite you the limitations of their job and why they can’t help you.
Here’s an example from a few years ago. Judith and I were flying from Washington, DC, back to Orlando on a 6:00 PM flight. I discovered there was an earlier flight to Orlando at 3:00. We showed up at the airport at 1:30 to see if we could catch a ride on the early flight with US Airways. Good news—they had plenty of seats and would be happy to change our seats for $75 each. Being a travel veteran over the decades, I said, “What if we fly standby and take open seats on an as-available basis?” It seemed like a straight-forward logical win-win request.
Stupid me! I was told that we couldn’t get on the earlier flight because “US Airways needed to generate revenue on those seats.” Pardon me, I thought I had paid for two seats and they were already generating revenue from our business. Under the logic of airline seats being a “perishable product” my practical argument was, “Hey, if the empty seats haven’t filled within 90 minutes of flight time, don’t you have a higher probability of selling seats on the later flight that is almost full?”
What was I thinking? “Why should US Airways want to take care of the passengers standing at the gate while increasing their own odds with getting some yet-to-show-up new passenger to pay for the later flight?” But that’s the way my mind works.
US Airways, however, has a scarcity mindset … the customer wants something we have, we already have their money, so let’s gouge them for some extra revenue instead of accommodating their request. Even the ticket agents and customer service person were visibly unhappy about having to enforce a logical customer request that was thwarted by policies called, “We need to earn revenue on that seat.” I was given that as an excuse by multiple people over numerous times. Wow, how degrading and transactional to quote policy like that to the customer.
By the way, we decided to hang on to our $150 and took our scheduled flight.
US Airways gets my nomination for being off-purpose with this matter. Not surprisingly, a Google search for their corporate purpose, vision, mission, or values reveals none.
To the credit of US Airways, their front line counter agent and supervisor tried to be helpful within their limitations. We traveled home safely and for that, I’m thankful to US Airways.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
Don’t let the excitement get the better of you. There’s a fork in the road in your business design that is too easily missed or goes unrecognized. The strategic and performance implications are profound.
If you are planning to start up a small business or are already running one, then you have a deep leadership decision about the orientation and attitude of your business as a “ME” business or a “WE” business. This orientation will play a major role in defining your corporate culture as well as the long-term sustainability of your organization—even its viability to be sold.
M.E. = My Ego
or
W.E. = Winning for Everyone
Many professionals’ offices and mom and pop businesses are “ME” businesses simply by default or lack of knowing any better. “ME” businesses may provide adequate customer service, but they are more likely a source of periodic customer service nightmare stories.
Being a business advisor for over three decades, I’ve observed that most ME businesses do not have happy endings for the business owners who are unaware of the “ME or WE” business model. Either the business success is so dependent on the person that there isn’t a viable exit strategy, or the reputation of the business is so poor there’s no goodwill worth buying.
Generally, these ME enterprises close when the dominant or alpha personality departs by either retirement or death. If by chance, the business is sold, the valuations are almost always discounted or only asset-valuations based because the business is so revenue and operationally dependent upon the owner.
However, if you’re unwilling, unable, or just don’t care about the long-term sustainability or saleability of the business, and if you’ve made an informed decision about having a “ME” business, then press into it all the way.
As long as you’re building a ME business by design and you understand the downside and can accept it, then there’s nothing inherently wrong with just shutting the doors when you’re done.
Candidly, the “Everyone Profits” mindset is a challenge to design, create, and execute, but done well is far easier to sustain and manage. (Here’s a huge tip: use The On-Purpose Business Plan as a guide.) When the people thrive, the business is more likely to follow suit.
An owner who cares about people infuses that attitude to the employees, who pass it along to the customers, who in turn send their referrals.
The spirit of customer service begins with a decision about whom the business serves. If you’ve never thought about your business orientation as “ME” or “WE,” then invest a few minutes to take a hard look in the mirror. I promise you that you can improve your lifestyle, position, and business performance if you will make a 
decision regarding your business orientation and then take it deeply one way or the other.
Don’t stay in the mushy middle. Pick a direction and run to it.
The On-Purpose® Approach is a service concept with “WE” checks and balances. Yes, it is more difficult to design and develop, but it brings a sustainable and durable dimension to the business. If you need help forming or transforming your “WE” business, let us know. We have business advisors who can guide you regardless of the size of your business.