We’ve moved and are ramping up for greater Success

We have finally found an office and have moved in. Thank you to all who have supported us during our journey to find premises, there have been several near purchases of buildings in need of some love and attention, but all have fallen through. Despite the long road of searching, trying to jump through planning hoops and failing we have learnt lots and had to practice what we preach in terms of leading through uncertainty, navigating conflict and managing stress. To cut a long story short we are leasing premises at Netherton Business Park, Kemnay. Get the full new address and phone number here. 

The building at Netherton and the surrounding countryside provides On Purpose with an office and training room in which we can continue to deliver our products in a safe and tranquil environment not too far from the city centre.

We will be holding an open day in the near future (as soon as we have chairs for you to sit on and mugs for you to drink from!) In the meantime, we will give a warm welcome to any visitors, should you be passing or would like to arrange a visit.

Welcome Aboard

On Purpose are pleased to announce and welcome a new member to our team.

Tina Sibley is a long term friend and associate of On Purpose and has supported Norton and I in many ways over the years. It’s a time of transition for Tina as she has uprooted herself from the sunnier climate of Plymouth to join us here in Aberdeen (we still need to convince her that the sun shines here more often than most people realise!!) Tina will be supporting us in the running of On Purpose as well as using her coaching and facilitator skills to deliver our existing products and create some more – so watch this space!!

You’re missing out if you are not yet behind Compassion in Business

Compassion is making news at the moment in all leadership circles. Research is showing those companies that embody compassion in the way in which they operate have increased employee engagement. On Purpose Ltd specialises in Authentic Leadership, and at the heart of Authentic Leadership lies compassion. Authentic Leadership is all about managing and meeting the paradox of needs from the employee, client, organisation and the larger business environment. To be able to manage complex multiple needs, a leader demonstrating authentic leadership will rely heavily on being able to really see things from a multitude of perspectives. A key aspect of this is a caring sense of responsibility – in other words, compassion.

So what is compassion? And how does this impact on Authentic Leadership?

Anwar Sadat makes the point that: “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thoughts will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress”.

Our biggest leadership challenge will not be solved from an external survival motivation (old mind-set) but by taking an inside-out, compassion motivation (new mind-set) approach to leading and living a meaningful life.

Many leadership failures stem from a leader being self-serving and not following their inner moral compass. We see the following context as driving these failures:

• Meaning, trust and engagement at work is at an all-time low.
• Leaders and organisations face increased challenges from globalisation and the accelerating rate of change.
• As our Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic and Ambiguous (VUCA) world intensifies, new leadership capacities are urgently needed.
• The current and the next generation of leaders must be ready to better respond to the needs of the greater good by developing increased self-awareness, social-awareness and moral decision making capacities.
  • Better responding by developing mindfulness-awareness, acceptance and compassion practices.
  • To care for themselves and be self-motivated by meeting their own needs [and being true to what gives themselves meaning in life], and being able to put themselves into a state of better balance and contentment.
  • To care for others and motivate others by being a source of needs satisfaction, stress reduction and be able to put their followers into a state of better balance and contentment. (Difficult to do when we can be faced with too much uncertainty, conflict and stress arising from the VUCA world.)

This is why On Purpose are pleased to announce that they will be running Compassion based leadership workshops in the near future. These workshops aim to help leaders develop a compassion motivation and be able to lead with a sense of caring responsibility.

The first step in developing Compassion is Mindfulness-Awareness. On Purpose are running a Mindfulness Based Authentic Leadership Retreat from 29th July to 2nd August. This is an executive retreat which supports leaders in developing a Mindfulness practice. Mindfulness is a simple yet powerful way of learning to pay attention to vital messages that come to us through our emotions, feelings and subconscious thoughts. These messages are occurring within us all the time and as leaders we often ignore this inner wisdom – often at our peril. You can get more information on this retreat here.

Croissants, crumpets and coffee

Have you attended an On Purpose breakfast yet? If you have been a client of On Purpose you are invited to attend bi-monthly breakfast meetings. The breakfasts have been well attended over the last 5 years. It’s a great place to meet other leaders interested in Authentic Leadership and many an interesting discussion is had before you start the working day. Several attendees have reported that it’s a great way to get the ‘cogs’ turning in thinking about your own leadership and how you can continually practise the art of it, as well as meeting some great and inspiring people.

Your Leadership Journal

In a previous newsletter, we spoke about how writing a journal can increase your effectiveness as a leader. How’s it going? It’s so easy to allow the day to day ‘doing’ to get in the way of reflecting on ‘how’ you’re doing, so here is an exercise to encourage you to keep up with reflecting on your leadership:

Reflect on the following questions each day for at least a week and record your thoughts in your journal.

• Seeking a true win/win in any situation can be difficult. When have I successfully found a win/win outcome today? What positive result did this bring about?
• When has my behaviour been passive, leading to a lose/win situation? What was the outcome? How could this have been changed to bring about win/win and how might that have improved the outcome?
• When has my behaviour led to a win/lose situation? What was the outcome? How could this have been changed to bring about win/win and how might that have improved the outcome?