Description

Core Purpose

Core Purpose is your innermost drive
and sense of yourself.

It shapes your decisions and behaviour,
and is a fundamental source of motivation and commitment.

Most people are not aware of their Core Purposes because

Core Purpose operates at an unconscious, intuitive level.

To maximize your
effectiveness and satisfaction in life and career,
you must
understand your Core Purpose

and make it a conscious part of
your behaviour and decision making.

What is “Core Purpose”?
Each of us has an inner drive
– a fundamental need –
that compels us to
“be all we can be.”

It’s the same for all of us,
but we satisfy it in different ways, and
we often don’t satisfy it at all.

It’s an unconscious drive, unless
we make ourselves aware of it,

so we often override it
when our thinking is distorted or
when we yield to outside pressures

or
when lesser needs
seem more urgent.

This fundamental inner drive goes by many names.

Tony Robbins, identifies it as
one’s sense of “ultimate destiny.”

Michael Gerber in his best-selling book
The E-Myth Revisited calls it “Primary Aim.”

Michael Ray, another best-selling author, and
the originator of Stanford University’s innovative course,
Creativity in Business, calls it “Highest Goal.”

Stephen Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
identifies it as a spiritual drive for meaning and contribution.

We call it
Core Purpose,
but it doesn’t matter what you call it.

The most important thing is that you know it exists within you, and
that you have a way to tap into its energy to power your effectiveness and growth.

Your Core Purpose works for you… and nobody else

And that’s the whole point.

System-First Problem-Solving

How do you know when
something is wrong
in your business?

What do you do when problems and frustrations crop up?

Is your first response to a problem
constructive or destructive … and
do you know the difference?

All too often the first reaction to a problem is
frustration and blaming
– you look for the person who “screwed up”
or you blame yourself for it.

Those are ineffective, and
often destructive responses.

The essence of effective problem solving
is to think systematically about problems…
focus on the system and “partner up” with the people involved
to find the most constructive solution.

In this lesson, we focus on
effective ways of detecting problems
before they become troublesome

and constructive ways of dealing with them.

Problems should not be

“Business as usual”

Every business, small or large, faces problems.

It’s the nature of business and you’ll never completely eliminate them.

If problems are “business as usual” for you,
rather than exceptions to a smooth-running business,
and
if you find yourself in a permanent state of
reaction rather than proaction,
it’s time for a healthy change.

A good place to start is to sharpen your problem detection skills,
as we have advised, so that you
identify problems earlier when they’re easy to deal with.

Another is to adopt the system-first approach to problem solving,
because it results in permanent solutions, and fewer recurring problems.

But the real starting point is
in your own head.

If a never-ending stream of problems is acceptable “business as usual” for you,
that, and the chaos that goes with it,
is what you’ll get.

If, on the other hand, “business as usual” means a smooth-running, profitable business,
with a minimum of problems occasionally cropping up,
you’ll become a systematic thinker,
permanently solve problems the system-first way, and
begin to live your business life the proactive way.

Personal Productivity

Everyone has the same amount of time
24 hours per day, 7 days per week

so how is it that some people seem to accomplish so much more than others?

And, more importantly, how can you be one of these people?

To become more productive, you need to
look at how you use your time,
and what can you do to
be more efficient.

Which task is top priority?
What can wait?
What tasks don’t need to be done at all?

And once you identify the tasks that need to be done,
how can you manage your time and attention
to be the most effective?

In this lesson, we examine how
you use your time each day
and
what you can do to maximize your productivity.

There’s no such thing as “time management”
Forget time.

Time is not your problem.
Attention is your problem.
Achievement follows attention.

Managing your attention will make the best use of your time,
which is actually saying managing your attention will make the best use of you.
Productivity doesn’t depend on how much time you have.
Everyone has the same amount of time
24 hours per day and seven days per week.

You can’t manage time
any more than you can
manage the weather.

Time passes at its own rate,
and it’s the same for everyone.

So why do successful people seem to get so much more
out of the same amount of time that everyone else has?

productivity does not depend on
the time available to you.

It has to do with your attention (what you choose to do),
your mindset
(your attitude toward work and time),

and some productive habits which
eliminate “busyness”
and replace it with
accomplishment.
You’ll find that you may do the same amount of work,
but by doing different work differently,
you’ll get more done, and more importantly,
you’ll get the right things done.

What it all boils down to is …
systemize yourself!

personal productivity
is largely a matter of
systemizing yourself.

Systems are ways of doing work and
designing work processes
in order to get specific results,

and
that’s what you’re trying to do, isn’t it?

Your work may be less predictable than most of the routine work of your business,
so…
apply the principles of systemization to yourself.

It’s worth doing.

The reason for doing it
is not to get more done, but
to do more of the right work,
to do less work that can and should be done by others, and
to do none of the work that really doesn’t need to be done at all.

You are your business’s most important asset.

Shouldn’t your most important asset also be your most productive?

Essential Leadership Capabilities

A leader is any person in a position
to affect change through other people.

An inept leader is still a leader, but an ineffective one.
Effective leadership requires many capabilities, but only

four essential leadership capabilities
are common to all successful leaders in all situations.

The other capabilities are situational
and are different for different leaders,
different groups of followers, and
different conditions.

The purpose of this lesson is to explain the four essential leadership capabilities
and to help you evaluate how well those capabilities are developed in you.

In later lessons we’ll cover other aspects of leadership,
and we’ll help you create your own personal leadership development program.

Leadership is the primary capability for company and business development.

Your leadership capabilities are a large part of your management skill set, and
for that reason alone they justify your attention and development efforts.

Far more important, however, is
the impact of your leadership capabilities on
the growth and development of your business, and
on other aspects of your life as well.

The future of your business, and therefore
a big chunk of the future of your life,
absolutely depends on
your leadership ability.

If you’re more effective as a leader, your business will be more successful,

you’ll make a greater impact for good in the world around you, and
if you do it right (Right Action)
you’ll be in closer harmony with your
Core Purpose.

If that isn’t a formula for satisfaction and happiness, we don’t know what is.