Lead Where You Are - Making Greater Impact Through Purpose
Make it your task each day to achieve a purpose. A sneak peek from the Leading With Purpose chapter of our new book, Lead Where You Are, due to be released on January 13th, 2020.
WORK YOUR DAILY TASKS WITH MEANING AND PURPOSE EVEN IF THEY SEEM MENIAL TO YOU OR OTHERS.
While each of us has our tasks to do no matter where we are in an organization, deliver those tasks with a greater purpose. If things in your department are drifting, step up with a purpose to make a positive difference this week. Intervene in the drift with options and suggestions for improvement. Most importantly, get more in touch with what drives you from day to day. What energizes you? Is it connecting with others? Contributing to a team? Organizing company events? Whatever it is that energizes you, focus on doing more of that. Make it your task to achieve a purpose each day.
FIND PURPOSE IN THE TASKS YOU COMPLETE AND WATCH THE IMPACT YOU MAKE GROW.
In our book, Lead Where You Are, we explore how purpose creates meaning in our work and extends the impact we can create. We discuss how in today’s workplace performance environment, matching unique individual talents to unique opportunities creates an undeniable competitive advantage against those organizations who rely solely on title and position to delve out tasks. And we discuss how individuals can create purpose in an environment lacking of purpose.
Here’s an excerpt from the Leading With Purpose chapter:
MATCHING TALENT TO OPPORTUNITY
Creating a sense of purpose starts by connecting what you do to the impact you are having. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
Our ability to match our talents with our opportunities and to create a lasting impact on our customers, co-workers and family energizes us and in return energizes those around us. Purpose inspires and it rouses us to be better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Lessons From The Best: What's Your Purpose?
Organizations that are deemed ‘Best Place to Work’, ‘Most Admired’, ‘Best Companies to Work For’, and so on, invariably have a very defined and compelling purpose beyond just making a profit or completing tasks. Purpose provides a pathway to success and ensures alignment between the organization and the actions and behaviors of every employee.
As we prepare for the release of our new eBook Lead Where You Are which will be coming out right after the first of the year, we will be exploring how organizations rated as a Best Place to Work create dynamic, highly engaged workforces delivering sustained results by leveraging many of the concepts we highlight in the book.
Week 1 (Oct. 10) - Leading with Purpose
Week 2 (Oct. 17) - Leading Change
Week 3 (Oct. 24) - Leading Accountability
Week 4 (Oct. 30) - Leading Performance
What’s your purpose?
Organizations that are deemed ‘Best Place to Work’, ‘Most Admired’, ‘Best Companies to Work For’, and so on, invariably have a very defined and compelling purpose beyond just making a profit or completing tasks. Purpose provides a pathway to success and ensures alignment between the organization and the actions and behaviors of every employee. It cultivates commitment, not compliance. The purpose drives everything from recruiting, selection, advancement and “dehiring”, if necessary. Let’s see how some of the best are purpose-driven and purpose-led.
Netflix
Our core philosophy is people over process. More specifically, we have great people working together as a dream team. With this approach, we are a more flexible, fun, stimulating, creative, collaborative and successful organization.
What is special about Netflix, though, is how they:
1. Encourage independent decision-making by employees
2. Share information openly, broadly, and deliberately
3. Are extraordinarily candid with each other
4. Keep only our highly effective people
5. Avoid rules
HubSpot
“There’s this notion that to grow a business, you have to be ruthless. But we know there’s a better way to grow. One where what’s good for the bottom line is also good for customers. We believe businesses can grow with a conscience and succeed with a soul. Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.”
Just a few statements from HubSpot’s Culture Code:
Culture is to recruiting as product is to marketing.
Solve For The Customer -- not just their happiness, but also their success.
Power is now gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it.
HubSpot has a no-door policy, where everyone has access to anyone in the company.
You shouldn’t penalize the many for the mistakes of the few.
Results should matter more than when or where they are produced.
Influence should be independent of hierarchy.
Great people want direction on where they’re going -- not directions on how to get there.
“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”
We’d rather be failing frequently than never trying.
As you can see from these two examples, purpose guides and everyone contributes. It is about unleashing talent and potential, taking personal and team accountability and seeing the possibly for change everywhere. Culture is a powerful competitive advantage, if cultivated and invested in.
Join us next week as we will explore some lessons from the best in cultivating an environment of change.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - The "Rank and Yank"
Related Fun Fact of the Week: Real Vaudeville shows would “Drop the Cow” on bad or overly long acts with "the hook", a shepherd's crook extended from offstage to pull away the performer. Oftentimes by the neck. Though he didn't originate it, the hook is forever associated with Howard "Sandman" Sims, a tap dancer who would use the hook on bad acts at the Apollo Theatre.
Talk about getting yanked! Ouch!
The pace of change is rapid. In fact, everywhere you turn the landscape of organizational performance is littered with relics of bygone eras. Last week we talked about our first organizational relic from the past…”climbing the corporate ladder”. As we discussed, climbing the corporate ladder is now being replaced by leveraging agile, individual and team performance networks that match unique talent to unique organization opportunity.
Our next left over symbol of a past performance bygone era is the use of “forced” or “bell curve” performance ranking systems, commonly referred to by the employees as “rank and yank”. This rating practice was championed by Jack Welch, CEO of GE and gained popularity with management throughout the 80’s. (Trust us, It was never popular in the employee population).
The practice of using a bell curve or a forced distribution to rank employees invariably kills morale, pits employees against each other creating unnecessary and unhealthy competition, and wastes thousands of hours with managers and HR professionals sitting in “collaboration meetings” fighting for their people. Even though GE and many other high profile organizations have stop using this method, many organizations still subscribe to what, hopefully soon, will be a long forgotten, ineffective, organizational practice.
With the evolution going on in organizational performance and the every increasing need to attract, develop, and cultivate specialized talent and skills, it important to replace “rank and yank” with continuous performance pursuit conversations and a “lead where you are” performance environment. The onus of performance accountability shifts from a leader reviewing and force ranking performance, to both the leader and employee pursuing performance with the employee continually owning and proactively reviewing their ongoing performance activities and results each month.
Organizations that have replaced this performance management relic in favor of continuous performance pursuit have seen tremendous improvements in both employee engagement and performance results.
It is time to make “rank and yank” a historical footnote in our organizations and business schools.
Want to know more on leading where you are? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package, complete with online courses, guidebooks and other resources.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Relics of Bygone Eras - The Corporate Ladder
Related Fun Fact of the Week: The longest wooden ladder in the world measures 135 ft long. It was made by the Handwerks Museum, St. Leonhard, Austria and completed in April 2005. The ladder has 120 rungs.
What a ladder to climb!
For over 50 years, the term “climbing the corporate ladder” was often a definition of success. The idea of starting at the very bottom and working your way to President or CEO seemed to be the the ultimate working dream.
But, “climbing the corporate ladder” is no longer seen as a path to success, just a symbol of past, ineffective, highly political performance models that often would define the most “qualified” as having the most organizational tenure or time in a position. Or even who you know that might assist you in skipping a few rungs on that ladder.
Thankfully, organizations are rapidly evolving from archaic “corporate ladders” to agile “performance networks” that identify and leverage unique talents and experiences and matches that talent to unique current and future performance opportunities.
Positioning yourself for this evolution of performance requires knowing, cultivating and leveraging your unique talents. Developing the capability and capacity to lead where you are, no matter where you are. This means leading your personal performance, not waiting to have your performance managed or reviewed. Leading change, not waiting for change to happen or letting the status quo consume your performance environment. Being accountable, even when others aren’t. Creating and sustaining authentic relationships, moving past just the communicating and truly connecting with others. And working with purpose and conviction, coming into work each day with a plan and attitude to help others be the best they can be by being the best you can be.
By leading where you are and intentionally developing the unique leader and talents within yourself, you define and cultivate your own future and you don’t let symbols from the past define your path to success.
Want to know more on leading where you are? Contact us or take a look at our Lead Where You Are online training package, complete with online courses, guidebooks and other resources.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Teaming Up: What's Your Purpose?
Listen to the Destination: Success Podcast.
In our last blog, the future of organizational performance are in these “network of teams” working seamlessly, promoting enhanced employee engagement, real-time communication, rapid information flow, and agile collaboration.
Our experience over the last 5 years cultivating and enabling these teams has shown it takes more than just getting people together and calling them an “engagement team.” There is a time-tested formula that sets the right foundation for team success.
Let’s focus on purpose. The foundation for any engagement team is establishing a clear purpose that every team member is aligned to. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. Every team struggles with this, and often, most teams skip over this important step and go right to resources and activities.
This step is NOT just creating a purpose statement, this is a defining action in the formation of the team that provides:
An anchor point for the team.
The “what” for the team.
A definition of both success for the team and the desired impact of the team.
The answer to “why” this team and its work are important.
A team can have all the right behaviors with all team members committed and tremendous organizational support but without a clearly defined and aligned purpose, the team will have little to no direction and rarely achieve its full potential and desired outcomes.
So, what’s your purpose?
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Destination: Success | A Man on the Moon
An engaged team put a man on the moon!
There is a predictable model for team success leading to amazing results. Let's explore the formula for success one team used to literally put a man on the moon.
When President John F. Kennedy first announced that America was going to send a man to the moon, most thought that it was impossible and insane and predictably asked, "Why?". But alas, we know (or most of us know) that he did it!
The formula for success President Kennedy used?
Purpose + Behavior + Commitment + Support = Amazing Things
First have a purpose. It must be compelling, relevant, and go beyond just performing or completing a task. The purpose established by JFK – “Put a man on the moon and return safely by the end of the decade”. Now that was a clear and compelling purpose.
The second element of the formula for team success – behavior. To enable success, a team must identify and consistently display enabling team behaviors. For the Apollo team, they didn’t focus on obstacles, they focused on opportunity. It was about the mission and not personal gain. They worked as one to achieve the purpose and never lost sight of what was truly important. That team had the right behaviors.
The mission required the third element of the success formula; commitment. Not just commitment from the three astronauts who risked their lives, and as a result, became national hero’s either. No, it was the thousands of NASA employees dedicating their lives to the purpose. Even when tragedy struck the program in 1967 and three astronauts lost their lives on the launch pad, commitment to the purpose never wavered. In fact, that incident rallied NASA to ensure that the sacrifice of human lives would not be in vain. It takes real commitment to ensure team success.
And finally, it takes support to succeed. President Kennedy made an appeal to both Congress and the American people on May 25, 1961. “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out; of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth”. The men and women of NASA had the support of the President and now an entire nation.
Because the team had a compelling purpose, showed the right behaviors, were committed to success, and had the support it needed, on July 20, 1969 at 10:56 PM Astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar module ladder and planted his foot on the powdery surface. Then on July 24, 1969 the space capsule safely splashed down, completing Apollo 11’s mission and realizing the dreams of a nation.
For more information on how to more actively engage in your organization join our DESTINATION: SUCCESS page, or contact us!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in enabling success by developing a dynamic and customized pathway to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.