Chief Leadership Officer

CEO-to-CLO: Business Reformed

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Jul 13 2020

Fast Company Article: “Purpose is suddenly a superpower!”

And you already knew that!

on-purpose super power
You Already Have Your Super Power

In the wake of the pandemic and the protests, purpose is suddenly a superpower. This article in Fast Company magazine caught my eye. Let me amplify and clarify a few of the author’s statements.

The idea that “… companies that have purpose built into their bottom line are the most likely to remain standing,” is true. Current events have highlighted and, perhaps, hastened what is a long arc of CEO-run companies being out-of-sync with the times.

“Just think about how hard it is to know how to do the right thing when your organization isn’t designed to do the right thing.” Yes, I love this statement. Chapter 13 in Chief Leadership Officer, “The On-Purpose Statements (Deep Strategy),” makes this case — plus it shows you how to do it and the larger context of it on the CLO Integrity Map.

“And while everyone is paying more attention to purpose, we are seeing a very clear separation between the purposeful and the pretenders, between those that only offer lip service and those that serve their community well.” Amen! Because I’ve been pioneering purpose since the late 1980s, I’ve seen the spectrum of “the purposeful” and “the pretenders.” Purpose has become a hot buzzword so business leaders, authors, and speakers mindlessly pitch it for marketing and not for its meaning. That kind of behavior inspires me to work harder to get the On-Purpose® message into the lives of people and their organizations.

The author is writing about Amazon: “When the pandemic pumped the company full of demand, the already noticeable issues with its employee relations struggles became unavoidable. Why? Because it had to choose between pursuing maximum profits or standing on purpose and caring for its employees.” Ah, CLOs, this is so rich for us to look at our CEO colleagues and see why they’re so challenged.

First, they see people as “employees” and “human resources.” It’s a dispassionate view of people that objectifies in the name of profits and “doing business.”

Second, “pursuing maximum profit” is not a wealth creation strategy. It is a wealth destruction tactic used by short-term profiteers. In its wake lie the bodies of those folded, spindled, and mutilated at the altar of profit maximizer. CLOs know about the triple bottom line (page 98). It isn’t a choice between profit and people. It’s a decision to have the checks and balances of three bottom-line measures. Profit is the effect. Purpose is the cause. And people are the connector for the two.

Kudos to Heath Shackleford, the founder of Good.Must.Grow. Hopefully, he’ll realize soon that being “purpose-driven” is really no different from being profit-driven — you’re still being driven! People aren’t cattle to be driven. Rather they’re humans to be called to belong and contribute — to give high and noble expression to their purpose. People will answer this call that I simply call being on-purpose.

Written by kwmccarthy · Categorized: Uncategorized

Dec 08 2019

O. C. Tanner Global Culture Report 2020

Graphic per O.C. Tanner Global Culture Report 2020

This is a fascinating report that’s addressing the “southern” branch of the Chief Leadership Officer Integrity Map: the internal audience of culture and operations. I highly recommend you visit their site and read the free report.

In their 2019 report, they said, “Last year’s Global Culture Report identified six core elements of workplace culture that are crucial to an employee’s decision to join, engage with, and remain at any place of work. We call them Talent Magnets, because of their power to attract and connect people to their teams and organizations. They are shown here with their corresponding improvement over last year’s study.”

What struck me immediately and continues to be a source of frustration for me is the first magnet “Employee Sense of Purpose.” Thanks to ONPURPOSE.me, we no longer have to settle for a mere whiff or sense of purpose. We can actually know it, own it, build our lives on it, and improve upon it — all from finding a 2-word purpose.

Later in the report, the point is made that improving purpose and meaning in the organization can have very positive impact on two to three of the other magnets.

“Our previous research found that the Talent Magnets are statistically
interconnected. Improve one magnet, and there will be improvements
in the others. This makes logical sense. A meaningful purpose, for
example, creates a feeling of opportunity, which increases the chance
for success. It also positively impacts employees’ perceptions of
leadership, and helps them feel an elevated sense of appreciation
and well-being. So improvement in purpose alone can strengthen your
entire culture across the board. The same is true for every magnet.”

Preach it!

And to think, that’s just an update on the 2019 Global Culture Report!

A highlight of the O. C. Tanner current report is the concept that team members (they call them employees) define their “employee experience” as “micro-experiences” that have peaks and valleys. Fortunately, the peaks sustain four weeks while the valleys maintain for only two weeks. In short, people offer a certain degree of grace.

However, consider my take on this aspect of the report. If a team member experiences five valleys for every one peak, then the power and impact of the peak never rises to its potential. The difference between a great workplace and an average or bad one may very well come down to a concept as simple as the leaders understanding and appreciating the “peaks and valleys” model in their daily conversations and interactions.

CLOs, as great as this report is, it is still a report of existing companies. As a CLO you’ll read between the lines of the report and see that even the companies most progressive at rewards and recognition for creating culture are still doing business incompletely right. For all the contemporary concepts and terms used, the old Industrial Age management theories are still alive and well in large corporations.

As a mid-market CEO making the shift to a CLO, you can gain an advantage in the battle for the best and brightest minds because your culture can be that much more nimble and better than your corporate counterparts.

O. C. Tanner, like On-Purpose Partners, is a business reformer that’s bringing the emphasis back to the core purpose of business and its relationship to people and society as a profitable proposition. Their report, for all its good news and progress, is still subject to the state of the organizations being surveyed. I acknowledge O.C. Tanner as a thought leader in this people and cultural space. Hidden between the lines of the report is that these large companies are striving for progress but hamstrung by their Industrial Age–based management model.

Much as it is difficult to turn an aircraft carrier at sea, the momentum of their past keeps large corporations mired in the maze of incremental improvement and change management. CLO is disruptive and risky to the big dogs. Yet the CEO who decides to make the transition to CLO by embracing the three charges of a CLO will finally get the full effects of innovation over incrementalism.

What a wonderful discovery to know that a complementary company like O.C. Tanner exists in the marketplace of ideas. I feel like I’ve gone on some DNA company website and found a branch of the family I didn’t know existed.

Here’s the PDF of the O. C. Tanner report. Do yourself a favor and download it plus visit their site. As a CLO, you’ll learn a lot and will pick up three to five ideas you can readily implement to improve your corporate culture.

Written by kwmccarthy · Categorized: Uncategorized

Aug 21 2019

The Business Roundtable Is Coming Around to CLO

Source article: US Corporations: Not Just for Shareholders Any More

Here’s yet another leading indicator that the Chief Leadership Officer movement is needed more than ever. This decree by The Business Roundtable is noble in spirit but short on details for execution — nor is this the place for it.

From the article: “Alex Gorsky, chair and CEO of Johnson & Johnson and chair of the group’s corporate governance committee, summarized it: ‘This new statement better reflects the way corporations can and should operate today. It affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders.'”

Chapter 8 of Chief Leadership Officer is titled “Stakeholder Engagement.” To quote from that chapter, “‘Social capitalists’ aren’t new. Business is returning to its sacred roots,” informed the CLO. “Chris, business was always intended to improve society. We business people perverted it from increasing wealth to enriching ourselves too often at the expense of others. That’s bad business.”

The more you look around, the more you’ll see the signs that Chief Leadership Officers are the future top-ranking officers in companies. The Business Reformation is upon us. Will you innovate and be ahead of the curve? Now’s the time!

Written by kwmccarthy · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jul 01 2019

CLO on Audible is Here

Chief Leadership Officer is now available on Audible. Thanks to the production team:

  • The cover art is masterfully crafted by the amazingly talented Terry Pappy of Better 3.
  • After reviewing nearly 50 auditions, a selection team choose Michael Lenz to narrate the book. Since, he’s done The On-Purpose Person and The On-Purpose Business Person on audio book. We like Mike!
  • Kimberly Hobscheid ably guided me through the Audible/ACX process to get to this place and will be helping spread the word within the Audible community and beyond.

Mike’s easy-listening, well-paced voice provides the mature, quiet, confident and trustworthy sound I heard in my ear when writing the manuscript. Here’s Mike audition plus samples from Chapters 2 and 5. Enjoy!

Sample of Chapter 2
Sample from Chapter 5

Written by kwmccarthy · Categorized: Uncategorized

Jun 04 2019

CEOs: Lost in Place

CLO Audio Book Snippet: Chapter 2

Mike Lenz is into production for Chief Leadership Officer on Audible. Listen to the opening of Chapter 2 from page 22 under the subtitle Lost in Place.

I have to admit, listening to the words I’ve written come to my ear in the voice of another person brings it wonderfully to life for me. The challenge of authorship is we can’t read our own books fresh. Yet for the first time, I can hear it in something other than my own voice while writing and editing.

Thanks, Mike! I’m lovin’ hearing the Chief Leadership Officer message come to life.

Written by kwmccarthy · Categorized: Uncategorized

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