• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Kevin W. McCarthy

The Professor of On-Purpose

  • Book Kevin to Speak
    • Programs
    • Be On-Purpose®
    • Making Meaningful Money™
    • Leadership Mettle™
    • TOUGH SHIFT®
  • About Kevin
    • Endorsements
  • Blog
  • Search

ethics

Can A Leader Afford To Be Real and Authentic?

August 30, 2018 By kwmccarthy

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?

For example, “Never let them see you sweat!”

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?
Iron sharpening Iron

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.

“Be an open book,” is the advice many would instill in others.

  • Is there such a thing as too much information?
  • Do we expect our leaders to exhibit a measure of prudent transparency?
  • Where is the line of privacy?
  • Don’t we need to practice discretion and judgment?

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.

Scratch below the surface of your style to discover the bedrock of your guiding principles.

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.

How Authentic Is Your Personal Brand?

July 5, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Caution SignCAUTION: The text that follows may disturb and upset you, especially later in this blog post. The words are offered in the spirit of truth in love. If you are offended or hurt, then you needed to read them more than you understand right now.

The integration of your personal brand and personal identity will improve both your life and your work life.

Investing time to anchor your personal brand in the bedrock of your being will prosper you, plus the world will be a better place because of you.

The desire, ability, and effort to be authentic requires us to overcome the natural decay or decline within us. In other words, being reactive, negative, and pessimistic is easy. This “laziness about life” is like emotional gravity that’s relentlessly pulling our spirits downward into a dark place.

Given this force of nature, a decision to be true to one’s greater good followed by effort in action is non-negotiable if we’re to be our authentic selves.

The marketplace is tough enough as it is. When we’re trying to “fake it until we make it” we are inauthentic—merely actors playing the role of some fictional character crafted in the deceit of our mind’s making. The script can only work so far until soon our sense of self, right and wrong, and how to make honorable decisions is so compromised that we lose our moral center.

When we no longer know who we are, we can no longer trust or develop our instinct and conscience.

Nor can other people. When people can’t trust us they guard themselves from us. This translates into lost opportunities we never even knew we missed. Doors don’t open. Referrals and recommendations don’t flow our way.

Living in a false construct is destructive.

We’re set up for the fall personally or professionally or both. Living a lie always comes with a price. Covering up our failure of authenticity invariably exacerbates the problems to ourselves and for others into full bloom. “Nipping it in the bud” has always been sage advice.

Business - unfinished businessDo you find your life to be growing in complication and overly busy? Busyness distracts us from our unfinished business.

Is now the time to assess your personal brand, including the image you portray?

Soul searching is truly good for the soul and good for business. 

Some of the hallmarks of authentic leaders are

  • patience
  • trust
  • honesty
  • action
  • perspective
  • calm

These are inner traits—some of which are hard-wired into us at birth. Most, however, are etched through the blessed pain of mistakes made, forgiveness sought, redemption made, and lessons learned.

Instinctively, you sense the unpredictable trajectory of your high risk–low reward behavior. You know that it is fraught with failure. Because if you rationalize “optimism,” which is really recklessness, the inevitable consequences catch up to your deceptive practices. If living lies is ruining your life, then make the tough shift of diverting from your present course.

It is never too late to have a new start.

Do a gut check. For example, the physical world reveals spiritual truths. Look at your waist. If you’ve got excess inches around your belly then here’s a clue—you’re living a lie that somKWM Before and Afterehow your self-inflicted overindulgence will not affect your health. Right! Guess again.

How do I know about this inauthentic personal brand of living a lie?

Look at my chipmunk cheeks back in 2008 and me today. Who was headed for heart disease, high blood pressure, or type 2 diabetes? I was on the inevitable downward trajectory from bad habits, poor choices, and lack of understanding. That was the easy part to fix! It was the software programming within my mind and emotions that was the greater challenge.

  • How could I be on-purpose carrying around a 50-pound load every day?
  • How much more authentic am I when I’m not self-inflicting harm?
  • How could I expect to prosper the planet when I was damaging and endangering myself?

The burden of excess weight dragged me down physically which affected my mind, spirit, and opportunities.

Are you ready to reverse and renew your life?

Have you reached the breaking point where the price of living a lie spoken upon you or self-manufactured and maintained has become a string of overwhelming lies that fray the very soul of your authenticity and identity? Reach out for help now. Recalibrate and realign the trajectory of your life. Time can be an enemy that reveals or a friend who heals. Begin the healing!

Reclaim your true identity.

Here are practical next step suggestions:

  • Reread The On-Purpose Person.
  • Download the free Discovery Guide and figure out what matters most to you.
  • Get one-on-one coaching from a Life Coach of your choice or from me.
  • Get on the path to being healthy. If you know a Health Coach contact him or her. If you want to talk with one, contact me and I’ll coach you in the program that helped me lose 50 pounds, or I’ll refer you to a Health Coach on our team.

On-Purpose Logo tag w colorThe tag line of On-Purpose begins with “Be Yourself.” Incorporate this simple statement into your decision-making. The less you pose, the more you will be and become the authentic leader of your life you know you are.

————————

This On-Purpose Minute is a contribution I made to Crowned Grace International, an organization led by my colleague and friend Dr. Stephanie Parson.

What Would You Do With $100,000 In Your Pocket?

May 24, 2018 By kwmccarthy

Lessons learned in business can often help us in life.

Here’s a true story of one of the several times I’ve been taken advantage of in business and lived to tell about it. Someday, perhaps, I’ll tell you more war stories.

For now, this On-Purpose Business Minute speaks for itself. It is longer than normal at 6 minutes, but it is a story that needs to be understood because it is rich in many lessons.

After watching this, here are some questions to ponder by yourself, with your family, or among your team:

  • Are money and confidence related? If so, how and why?
  • What are the limits to your service and compromise to keep it from becoming abuse and disrespect?
  • What can you do to avoid putting yourself at risk of being dangled by dollars?
  • If you had $100,000 extra in your pocket, what would you be doing differently from what you’re doing today?

Please share your thoughts, experiences, and insights in the Comments section below.

Hey! Can You Keep A Secret?

March 6, 2014 By kwmccarthy

There's a reason dirty little secrets are called "dirty." No, I won't keep you in suspense wondering why. They are dirty little secrets because they leave us dirty regardless of whether we are the recipient or the teller of secrets. 

Feeling dirty is the personal effect, but there's a larger, more devastating corporate consequence that pulls down innocent victims of these simple acts of foul play. In the end, we begin to ask, "Can I TRUST You?"

Today's On-Purpose Business Minute will hopefully get you to reconsider your participation in the act of dirty little secrets.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin

P.S.: Here's something we don't want to keep secret. RE:CALIBRATE!

If you're in a season of trying to make sense of life and searching for direction and meaning, yet you're unsure what's right for you, then it is time to RE:CALIBRATE.  Here are 8 power-packed sessions of personal leadership development with Kevin W. McCarthy that is sure to help you go while raising the trajectory of your life and work. Click the logo to learn more.

http://on-purpose.biz/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Recalibrate-4_j.png

Related articles
Do You Feel Like A Failure?
Is Your Life On Autopilot?

Does this make me look fat?

July 5, 2010 By kwmccarthy

Every guy has to chuckle at this Geico ad featuring Abraham Lincoln in a real dilemma with his wife. 

 

Will I See You There?

August 7, 2009 By kwmccarthy

Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce

I hope you can join us at the next Business-Building Lunch, September 1st, with our keynote speaker, Des Cummings Jr., who is Executive Vice President of Business Development for Florida Hospital and the Florida Division of the Adventist Health System. In this role, Des gives leadership to the mission, planning, marketing, new business development, and foundations for the seventeen Adventist Health System hospitals in Central Florida.

Tuesday, September 1st 11:30am to 1pm.

Faith Hall Conference Center at First Baptist Orlando, 3000 S. John Young Parkway, Orlando.

Member price $20.00; Non-member price $30.00.
Plenty of free parking is available.

For Information: www.cfchristianchamber.com or 407 484-3899.

Des talks about building a business on a foundation of love, ethics, and spirituality here.

Footer

Search this site.

  • Making Meaningful Money™
  • Leadership Mettle™
  • Booking Kevin
  • About Kevin
  • Endorsements

Copyright © 2025 · Kevin W. McCarthy, Winter Park, FL