Nick Craig on Leading From Purpose

WEBVTT

1
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:09.080
There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

2
00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:12.720
and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

3
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:18.920
Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

4
00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:23.800
we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

5
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.960
personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

6
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:39.280
on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

7
00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.960
the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I'm

8
00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.960
your host, Elise Cortez, joining
you live from Dallas, Texas, which

9
00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.840
is homebase for me. If you've
been tuning in for a while, you

10
00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:51.640
know this program is all about helping
people create more meaningful and productive personal and

11
00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:56.399
work lives and equipping leaders, insight
organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose that elicits

12
00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:00.159
passion inspired contribution, innovation, and
persevering performance. I talk with my guest

13
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:04.040
to draw on their expertise and share
my own experience consulting, speaking and developing

14
00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.959
workforces across the globe. Every week. In these conversations, I hope you

15
00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:11.000
walk away with something you can immediately
put into use in your life and that

16
00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.120
you come alive with a possibility of
living with passion, working on purpose,

17
00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:18.640
and are inspired to discover for yourself
just how big and fulfilling your life,

18
00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:22.400
work and leadership can be. And
if you do catch fire from anything you

19
00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:25.159
hear, reach out and tell me
about it. Email me at a lease

20
00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:29.079
at least cortest dot com, or
use the contact me feature on my website

21
00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:30.959
to message me. You might tell
me how I can help you among some

22
00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.000
of these areas. Whether you want
to join the introitution list to stay informities

23
00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:38.000
radio show topics, you want to
see about joining a cash fire online inspiration,

24
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.480
accountability or mastermind community. You want
information on my purpose driven leadership programs

25
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.400
for individuals or companies, or you
want to see about having me speak for

26
00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:49.719
your company or conference. At any
rate, I'm gladwork connected, and thanks

27
00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.680
again for listening. Now on to
this week's program with us today is Nick

28
00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:57.519
Craig, the author of the newly
published book Leading from Purpose and the president

29
00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:00.159
of Core Leadership Institute, where Heat
guides it was on the journey to discover

30
00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:04.640
and lead with purpose. He joined
Disnay from Harvard, Massachusetts, where it's

31
00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.599
one degree under zero. Thank you
very much. Welcome to Working on Purpose,

32
00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:10.120
Nick. Thank you. It's great
to be in a nice, warm

33
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:15.840
room as a Wow, I don't
want to trade places with you. I'm

34
00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:20.280
in Dallas, it's fifty some degrees
and I'm good with that. So I've

35
00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:23.520
read your book, Nick, and
you are just brilliant and I am so

36
00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:25.400
happy to share you with my listeners. And I read the whole thing from

37
00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:29.280
cover to cover. So I had
a lot of questions for you, and

38
00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:30.879
I thought we would start with I
mean, I know that you've been in

39
00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:36.159
the leadership, consulting and coaching business
for many, many years, but how

40
00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:39.080
did you end up doing this work
around purpose? Yeah? So I think

41
00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:46.240
what's interesting is that purpose isn't something
that you sort of go to college and

42
00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:47.960
say, you know, I want
to do work on purpose. In some

43
00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.879
ways, what happens is it comes
and grabs you and says, you know

44
00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:53.280
what, you're not going to ignore
me, and here we go. You

45
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.719
know. My version of that was
a little over ten years ago. I

46
00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:00.960
was working with a colleg Bill George, who was at Harvard Business School,

47
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:07.240
and we had created a model for
authentic leadership and one of the topics that

48
00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.199
we knew we needed to cover was
purpose. The problem is it was bombing

49
00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:14.960
in the classroom, and so I
get all I got all the hard pieces,

50
00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:16.319
so I got purpose and I had
to go figure this thing out.

51
00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:23.680
In the process of doing that,
we started doing some senior executed programs.

52
00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:28.159
In the first place we did it
was ge and Crownville. They had a

53
00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:30.599
list, we had a list of
topics and they said, well, we

54
00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:31.800
want this, this, and we
want purposes. Is no, you don't

55
00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:36.680
want purpose. I was like,
there's no, no, no, no,

56
00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:38.319
you do not want to do this. And they were like, no,

57
00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:40.479
you don't understand. You know,
you don't have a choice. I

58
00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:46.199
was like, oh, that's how
this works. What was interesting for me

59
00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.879
is that in the process of teaching
the material, along with a lot of

60
00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:57.560
other pieces, the participants showed me
how important this was to them. I

61
00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.719
mean, I got to hang out
with a bunch of individuals. I got

62
00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:02.960
to work at was with g I
did from two thousand and seven to two

63
00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:08.919
thousand and ten, so I got
to go through the whole recession with them.

64
00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.039
Fifty six Stock went from fifty six
to six. Now it's not doing

65
00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:15.319
so good these days, but it's
for different reasons. But back then.

66
00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:19.040
That was the first time they'd sort
of hit that that stopped sign in their

67
00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:26.040
journey. And what was interesting was
it as alumni came back in two thousand

68
00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:30.079
and ten when participants said, well, so, of all this stuff you

69
00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.600
did, what was the most useful
to you during the most challenging moments of

70
00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.920
your leadership? And allows us a
couple of years, these guys and gals

71
00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:43.959
would say purpose and I was like
what. I was like, what are

72
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.600
you talking about? I said,
And then all of a suddenly at the

73
00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:48.759
point at media and they'd say,
you know this guy is and I was

74
00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.759
like, oh, you know that
thing we did. So what what I

75
00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:59.759
discovered is that purpose is the ultimate
antidote to uncertainty. And for these leaders

76
00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:03.199
in the times of the greatest uncertainty, the one thing that was solid ground

77
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.319
that they could stand on, and
this is what they told me, was

78
00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:13.160
their purpose. Everything else that bonuses, the stock options, everything was being

79
00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:17.560
ripped away. And this one guy
said, look, everything I'd given them

80
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.480
was was was crumbling. And so
I realized the only thing I had to

81
00:05:21.480 --> 00:05:26.120
stand on was my purpose, and
my purpose is to be the whitewater raft

82
00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:30.199
guy that gets you safely to the
other side. I remember that from your

83
00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:33.000
book that example. Wow, it
isn't it great? I mean, now

84
00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:35.519
today, all these years later,
Nick, can you believe that we're not

85
00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:40.839
talking about purpose? And how how
you almost stumbled past it? Yeah?

86
00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.519
And I you know, the bottom
linze is I wasn't like I thought it

87
00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:46.839
was something worth focusing on. Okay. I thought it was this nice,

88
00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:51.800
fluffy thing that people did when I
have extra time, right right? Well,

89
00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:55.720
okay, so the next thing that
probably makes sense to talk about here

90
00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:59.199
and if I've heard lots of different
definitions of purpose, but how do you

91
00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.879
define it? Yeah? You know, it's interesting I've bumped in early on.

92
00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:05.720
I tried out all the versions and
only would all break on me and

93
00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:09.160
I'd be like, okay, so
now how I'm going to put this thing

94
00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:14.800
back together for me? Purposes?
At its core is that unique gifts that

95
00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:17.680
you bring to the world. I
guess the best way I could put it

96
00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:23.759
is that if I replaced anyone who's
listening to this with someone equally as skilled

97
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:28.560
and capable as they are in their
life, in their job, and then

98
00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:33.160
I was to interview everyone around that
person three months later and say, what

99
00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:39.879
do you most miss the answer that
question would be your purpose. You know,

100
00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.759
I did that exercise, Nick,
and it was fantastic. It really

101
00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:45.600
was great, a great exercise.
There's so many useful things in your book,

102
00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:46.319
and that was one of the things
that I put right to you.

103
00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.639
So I won't talk about what the
results were for that, but then I'll

104
00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:55.480
be for another conversation. But mini
perls Nick from that, Yeah, because

105
00:06:55.480 --> 00:06:59.199
I think that you know, for
most of us, Look, we have

106
00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:01.199
our skills, we have capabilities,
we have our roles, we have a

107
00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:04.839
lot of stuff, and we put
a lot of stock in them. But

108
00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:09.160
they're all fragile in a sense that
someone gives them to us, some of

109
00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:13.199
them take and take them away.
And every day we open the newspaper read

110
00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:16.720
read about people and the consequence of
that being the case, and in some

111
00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:20.240
sense, you know, what I
see as purposes is it It is the

112
00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:25.240
one thing that no one can take
away from you. And in some ways

113
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:30.600
it's what you bring to a meeting
of conversation, an experience that if you

114
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:34.560
weren't there, it won't show up. Yeah. I got that so clearly

115
00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:39.319
from your book, and that just
really really takes me back when I when

116
00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.879
I hear when I read that when
I hear you say it again, because

117
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.639
it shows up so powerfully in the
room that way when you say it that

118
00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:46.399
way. And I get that,
Yeah, because I think that you know,

119
00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:49.639
in some sense, if we look
at you and you look at this

120
00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:55.199
this prodcast, there's something you bring
to this dialogue that no one else is

121
00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:58.519
going to bring. And the more
you know what it is, the more

122
00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:00.480
you can own it, and the
more you can own it where you can

123
00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:03.360
lead from it right well, and
to that end, I mean, you've

124
00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:07.399
already talked about how our purpose can
really help in times of uncertainty, that

125
00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:13.639
just what you talked about during the
recession is incredibly powerful. How to leaders

126
00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.519
access their purpose? Though? How
do they find it? People ask me

127
00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.839
that all the time. Yeah,
I mean this was what my experience has

128
00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:26.040
been is that there's three major access
points to purpose. Okay. I mean

129
00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:31.000
the first access point to purpose is
there's most of us, no matter how

130
00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:35.679
tough our childhood was, you can
identify some magical moments in our childhood.

131
00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:39.840
Once when we talk about I'm the
curious kid inside of us sort of shows

132
00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:46.080
up and it just gets all energized. And in many of those experiences is

133
00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.840
the essence of how we see the
world and what's the gift that we bring

134
00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:56.720
to it. That's one sort of
access point. Another access point is some

135
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:01.519
of our most challenging life experiences and
how we dig ourselves out of that hell

136
00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:03.840
that we might have been in.
Each of us does in a unique way,

137
00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:07.639
and in there I've found many of
the insights about what's the gift somebody

138
00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:13.639
brings. The third place I've found
that purpose can be found is that some

139
00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:20.320
of us have passions that transcend our
They're not about money that we do them

140
00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:26.200
because they somehow speak to some deeper
part of us. And in those passions

141
00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:28.679
is an access point to that place
of purpose. So you know, for

142
00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:33.840
me, most of the time when
I'm working with individuals, we're looking at

143
00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:39.080
those different access points and we're unpacking
and discovering what is that version of the

144
00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:43.519
purpose that is them. Now,
when I talk about purpose in the you

145
00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.440
know, a lot of people will
come up with a set of words.

146
00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:50.799
Whatever the words are that we come
up with are are like a key to

147
00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:54.240
a room. What matters is what's
inside the room itself, and that I

148
00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:58.159
think that for all of us there's
a room a purpose that is so much

149
00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:00.720
bigger and more beautiful than any sort
of world. As with my ears,

150
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:05.879
I really get that. And I
did see that that set of those those

151
00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:07.799
three access points in your book,
and they're so clearly written about, and

152
00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:11.759
I do think they give us they
give us a space to be able to

153
00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:16.159
discover from. So I found that
useful as well. I want to go

154
00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:20.000
on to impact next. Nick.
You've got a whole bunch of stuff there

155
00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.120
about impact, about how what purpose
does in terms of our professional in our

156
00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:26.279
personal lives. And I don't know
how many of these we can get through,

157
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:30.960
but let's let's crack on them.
The first one you talk about is

158
00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.480
clarity of focus. So how does
purpose give us clarity and focus? You

159
00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:39.759
know, it's interesting because when I
started doing the interviews for this book,

160
00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:45.039
well, that was not something that
I would associate with purpose per se.

161
00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.559
Well, what happened when I talk
to people is is that time after time,

162
00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:52.279
everybody would say, you know,
of all the things that I would

163
00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:56.960
miss if I didn't know my purpose, it would be the clarity and focus

164
00:10:56.039 --> 00:11:01.879
to make the hard decisions that I
don't think I could obeatee otherwise. And

165
00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:07.480
there were basically decisions in a world
in which there was no data or there

166
00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.159
was not enough data that it was
ever going to help us to solve it.

167
00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:15.720
And so in some ways, what
I found is that people feel a

168
00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:20.559
more of a sense of clarity and
focus and being able to make those hard

169
00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:26.440
decisions. And in some ways it's
independent of whether it's they're in a fog

170
00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:31.679
or they're they're actually in the sunlight. They feel it because their purpose speaks

171
00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:35.679
to them and says, listen,
here's where you need to be, here's

172
00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:37.279
the job you should be taking.
It doesn't make any sense, but this

173
00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:41.559
is what makes sense, or here's
the choice that you need to make.

174
00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:46.039
It almost feels to me nick like
that purpose. It gives us a way

175
00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.799
to illuminate all those extraneous things that
take us away from delivering on our purpose

176
00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:54.600
or living our purpose. They become, i don't know, too visible and

177
00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:58.120
easy just to knock out, like
they just don't belong. Yeah, And

178
00:11:58.159 --> 00:12:01.080
I think the funny part that was
I want to be honest, is it.

179
00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:03.440
You know, I spend most a
lot of my time and most everybody

180
00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:09.279
else I know, running into all
into all those other places hoping they're going

181
00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:13.039
to be great places to be and
then we find ourselves getting kicked out and

182
00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.679
at some point we goo, okay, this is not working, and then

183
00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:18.799
we sort of say, well,
if I was listening to my purpose,

184
00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:24.240
now what would I be doing?
You know, at least is after there's

185
00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.639
lots of blood and bruises and everything
else, and then you go, Okay,

186
00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:30.120
that's actually not so hard. Okay, now I get what that is.

187
00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:31.919
And so I don't you know,
I think that I just want to

188
00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:37.039
be humble and truthful for everyone who's
listening. Is it as much as I

189
00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.039
would like purpose to be so crystal
clear that you always make the choice the

190
00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:43.559
first time? Right up? My
sense is that purpose is the is the

191
00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:48.679
background that's always there. It's the
one that will always take care of you

192
00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:54.279
and always be there for you and
never forget you even though you forget it,

193
00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:01.759
and it will be there always.
Yes, And along those lines what

194
00:13:01.799 --> 00:13:03.279
you just narrated there, and Nick, I really want to say thank you

195
00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:09.399
also and appreciate you for how authentic
you wrote your authentically you wrote your book

196
00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.600
because you did talk to us about
how some of the things that you tried

197
00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.679
on didn't always work, and some
of your experiences weren't always the best,

198
00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:20.279
and I really appreciate an applaud and
I'm inspired by how you did that.

199
00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:24.279
Yeah, well, purpose made me
do that one, so purpose made me

200
00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.799
do it. Okay, I'm serious. There's times that I'm writing it's going

201
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:30.559
okay, I don't think I actually
want to print this, and my purpose

202
00:13:30.600 --> 00:13:33.559
says, no, you've got to
print this thing. Stop, So I'm

203
00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:35.840
like, okay, well, just
I'm not. I'm going to listen.

204
00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:41.480
I think it's gorgeous and it's very
inspiring, really, so thank you.

205
00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:45.919
And that brings us probably to the
next the next point about impact that maybe

206
00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.600
is related to that. It's growth
and you talk about growth you can count

207
00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:52.360
on, and then there's also something
you talk about with regarding the growth mindset

208
00:13:52.519 --> 00:13:56.879
with purpose. What do you mean
by the two of those sets? So

209
00:13:56.080 --> 00:14:03.840
here's the good news is it worked
with some individuals who, because of knowing

210
00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.759
their purpose, have been able to
generate double digit growth in their businesses.

211
00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:13.960
One of them was the CEO of
Ben and Jerry's for the last eight years,

212
00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:18.799
and another one was a guy who
got four hundred percent growth in a

213
00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:22.799
business in a third wald country that
nobody ever thought was even worth anything.

214
00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:26.919
And there's a whole stream of people. And you know what purpose will do

215
00:14:28.039 --> 00:14:31.639
is Purpose will say, those wimpy
goals you have, those are really useless.

216
00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:35.440
Let's give you something worth really jumping
into. And they don't get you

217
00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:39.879
to go there. Now, you
might not hit the mark of what you

218
00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:43.600
sort of sto shoot for, but
you'll go way beyond what the normal numbers

219
00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:46.720
were that somebody said you should or
shouldn't do, because you won't you don't

220
00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:50.240
like going to listen to that.
So that's sort of the simple version.

221
00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:56.759
But when I looked deeper underneath all
of that to what made these individuals tick

222
00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:01.360
and what made them so successful,
what I discovered was something that Carol Dwick

223
00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:05.559
had discovered when she looked at kids, which was something called a growth mindset

224
00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:09.000
versus the fixed mindset. So the
way it works is is that if we

225
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:13.200
if we look at kids, the
fixed mindset is is that you think you're

226
00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.639
either good or bad at math or
English, and then you spend the rest

227
00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:24.759
of your education reinforcing the fact that
that's the truth. Okay, that's the

228
00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:28.639
fixed mindset. The growth mindset is
no matter how bad you happen to have

229
00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:33.399
done on any of those things at
any moment in time, if you really

230
00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.120
dedicate time and energy toward it,
you can actually become really really good at

231
00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:41.519
it. Okay, that's the mindset, and the growth mindset comes from a

232
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:48.360
deep place of curiosity and possibility.
The fixed mindset is trying never to make,

233
00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.639
never to be seen as anything other
than the way you'd like to be

234
00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:56.480
seen, which makes you fragile.
And so my sense is that purposes the

235
00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:02.000
ultimate antidote to the fixed mindset,
because purpose is always stretching us and saying,

236
00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:07.000
really, that's where you're going to
stop, right, You're gonna be

237
00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.559
satisfied with that. Yes, Well, I really like how you generated that

238
00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:14.120
and brought that to life for us, Nick, because I do know Carol

239
00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:18.679
Dwek's work. And but the notion
of being of standing when you're in a

240
00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:22.039
fixed mindset, of making sure that
you try to be who you want to

241
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.919
be or be seen as who you
want to be, is actually a very

242
00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:30.240
nice application that I haven't heard before. Oh God, I'm glad you appreciate

243
00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:33.600
it. Yeah. Absolutely, And
on that note, Nick, let's grab

244
00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:36.320
our first break. I'm your host, Alice Cortez. We're are on the

245
00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:40.159
air with Nick Craig He has the
author of the newly published book Leading from

246
00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:42.960
Purpose and the president of Core Leadership
Institute, where he guides executives on the

247
00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:47.279
journey to discover and lead with purpose. He joined us a day from Harvard,

248
00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:49.399
Massachusetts. We've been talking about his
new book. We're going to contiue

249
00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:52.960
the conversation after the break. Stay
with us, We'll be right back.

250
00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:18.519
Elise Cortez is a speaker and engagement
and development catalyst. She designs and delivers

251
00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:23.319
professional development, leadership and engagement workshops
and can bring her expertise to your organization.

252
00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:29.599
She will help ignite meaningful development within
your workforce that will increase employee engagement,

253
00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:33.559
performance and retention. To learn more
or to invite a lease to speak

254
00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:38.000
to your organization, please visit her
at www dot Elise Cortez dot com.

255
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:48.720
She would welcome the opportunity to help
get your employees working on purpose. This

256
00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:53.960
is working on Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our program today, send

257
00:17:53.960 --> 00:18:00.680
an email to Elise ali Se at
Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to

258
00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:11.000
working on Purpose. Thanks for staying
with us, and welcome back to working

259
00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:12.720
on Purpose. If you're just joining
us, my guest is Nick Craig.

260
00:18:12.839 --> 00:18:17.440
He is the author of the newly
published book Leading from Purpose and the president

261
00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:19.880
of the Core Leadership Institute, where
he guides executives on the journey to discover

262
00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:25.480
and lead with purpose. He has
worked with organizations including Ben and Jerry's Heineken,

263
00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:29.880
im G Bank, Lego, Unilever, and the United States Military Academic

264
00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.599
Academy at West Point. So,
Nick, before the break, we were

265
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:37.880
talking about some of the areas of
impact that purpose has on our professional and

266
00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:40.240
personal lives. And the next one
up I wanted to talk about, which

267
00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:41.759
is very near and durant to my
heart because I've studied it for a long

268
00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:48.000
time, and that's identity. So
what's the correlation, the connection between purpose

269
00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:52.000
and identity? You know, I
think this is we I spent so much

270
00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.200
time with so many senior executives who
don't have lost track of who they are.

271
00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:03.160
They sit in front of me,
they've been they've been promoted to the

272
00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:07.359
point where they no longer can use
any of their expertise, skills or knowledge

273
00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.640
right and they are struggling to figure
out what is it that they actually bring

274
00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:18.519
because they don't know. And what
I discovered is that in the process of

275
00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.799
helping them uncover their purpose. They
for the first time actually knew what is

276
00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:29.400
it that they brought That was their
gift. It's their true identity, independent

277
00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:34.640
of the education, university, or
whether their marketing or engineer or whatever the

278
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.839
case may be, which is how
they'd define their identity up until that point,

279
00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.759
which was also what was causing them
to do the job of the people

280
00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.400
that worked for them, as opposed
to doing the job they needed to do,

281
00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.799
which is going into the unknown territory
that nobody had figured out yet.

282
00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:55.519
And so I think that that's the
real gifts that purpose brings for us,

283
00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:03.400
is it reveals that deeper sense of
identity that is one that is only ours

284
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:08.640
now really the that's the gift of
purpose. And what I know that's so

285
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:11.480
great, Nick, I love that
what I know about identity is, among

286
00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:17.160
many other functions, it's a it's
a behavior driver. So if we're actually

287
00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:21.799
behaving from from our from our identity
of purpose and purpose, then that's that's

288
00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:25.200
a pretty strong path to come from. Yeah, And I just think that

289
00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:29.160
if I look at how many people
so I uh, you know, I

290
00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:33.440
worked with a guy, A work
with the guy Rodge, and you know

291
00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:37.880
he had been. He was on
track to become a head of HR for

292
00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:42.359
a very large company, and everybody
was telling him that he was going to

293
00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:48.079
get this big promotion, and when
I mean, they're all everybody was telling

294
00:20:48.119 --> 00:20:51.960
him. And when the announcement came
out out, there was somebody else's name

295
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.519
on the announcement, and of course
he was incredibly devastated. Now his purpose

296
00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:00.519
was lights, camera action. You
know, we really you, and let's

297
00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.240
make it happen and personally do it, and came from him as a kid,

298
00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:07.799
and he loved sort of creating theater
and being on stage as a kid

299
00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:11.799
and getting others on stage and writing
plays and it was sort of his whole

300
00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:18.680
ethos and his orientation to his purpose
was to always help everybody else step on

301
00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:23.559
stage. And what he realized is
is that he had a choice. He

302
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:30.640
could go leave and be disgruntled and
go work somewhere else and sort of protect

303
00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:33.079
his identity, or you could let
go of that and realize that independent of

304
00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:37.440
the title and everything else, he
could live his purpose. And he realized

305
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:40.960
there was two people who were a
couple of years below him who had been

306
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.200
overlooked for a couple of promotions,
and so he decided to spend the next

307
00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.920
year making sure that they got the
promotions that they really deserved. Now,

308
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:51.039
in the process of doing this,
of course, he ends up with a

309
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:56.839
great promotion himself. But it was
only after he let go of his corporate

310
00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:03.359
identity that he was free to really
step into and own his own What are

311
00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:06.359
you? What are you really really
here to do? Well? And so

312
00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:10.400
I think for all of us,
you know, the true identity is is

313
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:14.240
not the one we think it is. It's after everything else is stripped away,

314
00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:18.480
what's left? Right? Oh,
I do remember that story from your

315
00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:22.079
book. That's it's a It's an
incredible story and a testament to what it

316
00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:25.759
is to step back and really stand
from our purpose. So, oh,

317
00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:29.359
it's gorgeous stuff. Nick. So, how long have you been working in

318
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:33.240
this purpose space a little Lizzie at
this point, Oh, A good ten

319
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.680
to twelve years. I've been and
I've I've worked, We've worked with the

320
00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.920
group. We've probably worked with over
fifteen thousand people. Now, wow,

321
00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:44.880
that's so great. Talk about impact
and make a difference in the world,

322
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:48.519
Nick, that's so great. Well, And on that note, the next

323
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.920
thing I want to talk about is
energy. As one of the impact pieces

324
00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.720
of purpose. And you talk about
purpose as being really a true source of

325
00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:59.839
energy, and I absolutely agree with
that, and that leadership purpose promotes come

326
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:03.319
the engagement. So this becomes really
interesting because people say, Okay, how

327
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:08.880
do you connect purpose with engagement?
Yeah, so I think here's the less

328
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:14.920
Wait. I know a lot of
people who when I interact with them,

329
00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:19.440
they at some point finally admit the
fact that they're exhausted and that what they're

330
00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:23.920
exhausted from mostly is trying to look
like they're not exhausted and trying to act

331
00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:27.920
like everything's wonderful, and they're the
energizer buzzy because everybody else is acting like

332
00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:33.359
the energizer buzzy buddy. Right.
Yeah, And so I mean, one

333
00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.200
funny example, So I was at
West Point teaching the program, and I

334
00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:45.559
have all these people who are very
impressive military and professors and whatever. And

335
00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.599
what turns out was is that they
all thought that somebody made a mistake in

336
00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:56.319
letting them in. Okay, every
one of them thought that everybody else belonged

337
00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:57.799
in, but they didn't. And
everybody else looked confident. But they were

338
00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:00.640
all in the room together are saying, well, we all look confident.

339
00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.640
But the truth is, we all
think that everybody else belongs to be here,

340
00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:11.160
but not us, And you know
that is enormously de energizing. Okay,

341
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:14.400
And I think that in some sense, the beauty of purpose is it

342
00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:17.519
when you have your purpose, you're
finally home. Yeah. I love how

343
00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:19.079
you say that in your book.
That's so great. Yeah. And when

344
00:24:19.079 --> 00:24:26.279
you're finally home, then you actually
have energy in a different way. And

345
00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:30.119
I think that the look, I
think that knowing your purpose will put you

346
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.400
in harms way more often than would
be if you don't know your purpose.

347
00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:37.519
But you have energy in a different
way because you're not trying to fake it

348
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:44.000
anymore. You're you're pretty clear what
it is you are in who you are.

349
00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:48.359
And so from that place, the
energy that you speak from and you

350
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:51.240
operate from, is it a very
different layer. Now, let's not to

351
00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:52.920
say that you don't spend a lot
of time being exhausted and tired in all

352
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:59.440
those things that happens as well,
But I think that the deeper level of

353
00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.680
where the energy comes from, it's
not coming from the external thing that you're

354
00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:07.680
excited about. It comes from the
internal thing that is driving through you.

355
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:11.519
Okay, So let's take that a
little one step further if we can in

356
00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:17.119
terms of an organization, So thinking
about how do we thread the energy of

357
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:22.119
that one person, and we look
toward creating more satisfied, fulfilled and energetic

358
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:26.559
workforce. What's the threat force?
Now? How does this purpose stuff work

359
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:32.599
energetically inside organization to catalyze engagement?
So what my experience has been is that

360
00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:37.680
it has a huge impact on shifting
the whole engagement scenario. I think if

361
00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:41.640
we look at engagement scores and you're
if you're in the HR organization and the

362
00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:45.240
engagement scores, are you willing in
the wrong direction? But you have all

363
00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:49.880
the external events happening in the world
that would suggest that there's nothing that you're

364
00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:55.000
going to do to change the external
events and you're struggling to figure out what

365
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:56.599
to do. The question then becomes
as what levers do you really have?

366
00:25:59.079 --> 00:26:03.279
From my experience is most of the
organizations that bring us in bring us in

367
00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:08.119
because they they have lost that magic
and they don't know how to get it

368
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:12.160
back right. And when we start
doing this work with people, when we

369
00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:18.519
reignite. The way I think about
this is this purpose is only present if

370
00:26:18.519 --> 00:26:22.599
the curious little kid inside of your
shows up right now. I can't think

371
00:26:22.680 --> 00:26:26.799
of anything more engaging and energizing and
dynamic than the curious little kid inside of

372
00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:30.119
you and me. I know exactly
what you mean. I just saw in

373
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:33.720
the airport as I was traveling.
It was so great. And so with

374
00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:37.839
that, the opportunity is is if
you have that across an organization, you're

375
00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:45.759
going to have a very different level
of engagement than if you don't. And

376
00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:48.119
in some ways that's what we're looking
to access, is how do we get

377
00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:52.200
the whole system to wake up.
I mean, I've got I've got an

378
00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:55.720
organization right now that's decided to roll
this out to twenty five thousand people.

379
00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:00.160
Wow. And the reason why is
because it worked for the top five thousand

380
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:03.240
and they got all energized, and
everybody else said, whatever they got,

381
00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:07.759
I want some of that, And
so it's it's it's you know, in

382
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:11.359
some ways, it becomes infectious as
to what happens when you start to see

383
00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:15.200
all these people who have something,
what why are they so energize? What's

384
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:21.319
going on? And so in some
ways it is it is a virus that

385
00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:25.240
we all would like to have,
which is level of energy. So the

386
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:30.240
engagement shifts, and what happens is
people start having more authentic conversations, more

387
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:37.119
transparent conversations, and all of that
generates very different effect. Yeah. And

388
00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:40.839
if we're if we're fueled from a
sense of purpose and we feel united in

389
00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:44.519
that, all the more so.
Yeah. Absolutely. And you know,

390
00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:49.839
if we look at organizational purpose that
the challenge with the organizational purpose by itself

391
00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:53.559
is is that it is it's how
do you connect to it? And if

392
00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:57.240
you know what your purpose is and
what your connection is between your individual purpose

393
00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:02.480
and the organization's purpose, it gives
you a whole different arc of why you're

394
00:28:02.519 --> 00:28:07.359
there. Absolutely. Yeah. Interestingly
enough, Nick, I'm when I researched

395
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:10.200
some people experience meeting and their work
and listen to their identity and one of

396
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:14.599
the modes of fifteen that I found
was organizational mission alignment. And it's I

397
00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:18.440
kind of map it over to that. But and how what a space of

398
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:22.480
you know, these guys are on
fire when they're in that place. Absolutely

399
00:28:23.079 --> 00:28:26.000
so. One of the other things
that you talked about in your book that

400
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:27.599
I love the way you write about
this, Nick, It's just so crisp

401
00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:32.559
and clear and accessible. You talk
about doing the hard right over the easy

402
00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:36.079
wrong as as an element of impact. What you say more about that?

403
00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:40.920
Yeah, I think you know.
The hard right versus easy wrong comes from

404
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.839
the crew at West Point, and
it's from the Cadet Prayer, and it

405
00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:48.759
talks about doing the hard right versus
easy wrong and going for the whole truth

406
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:55.319
instead of just behalf. And look, what I've seen over and over again

407
00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:59.599
is that most of us are struggling. It's easy for all of us to

408
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:04.480
know what easy wrong is in hindsight, and the challenges is in the moment,

409
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:07.319
do we make the hard choice,
and do we make that hard right

410
00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:12.799
choice that as a result of it
is for the bigger cause or the bigger

411
00:29:12.920 --> 00:29:17.240
us? You know. One of
the stories they ended up having that I

412
00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:19.480
have in the book is actually about
a colleague I know from West Point who

413
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:23.359
was on track to become a one
star general. He was with Portray ust

414
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:26.880
Or in the surge, and he
decided that that wasn't what he wanted to

415
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.319
do. He wanted to train leaders. He didn't want to be the leader,

416
00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:33.519
which in the military is kind of
a weird thing to do. To

417
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:37.279
make that shift, But he went
back to school and he was in Boston,

418
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:42.240
and he was running in the Boston
Marathon in twenty thirteen with the blind

419
00:29:44.039 --> 00:29:48.960
colleague and he was at the finish
line when the first of the bombs went

420
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:53.480
off. Yeah, and he was
He'd done a number of tours of duty,

421
00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:59.359
so for him, that was no
different than being in Afghanistan. So

422
00:29:59.400 --> 00:30:03.400
he started doing triage and he was
actually he saved six people's lives, and

423
00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:07.079
the EMTs were like overwhelmed. They
and they'd never seen anything like this,

424
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:11.839
And he was teaching them in real
time what to do to stop the bleeding

425
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:15.039
in certain situations, and what you
had to do to make create the tension.

426
00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:18.160
And you know, in some ways
he had spent the six months before

427
00:30:18.200 --> 00:30:22.279
that wondering whether he'd made the biggest
mistake in his life getting off of the

428
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:27.559
general career track, you know.
But after that event, he realized why

429
00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:32.000
he was. One of the reasons
that he was there was so he could

430
00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:34.559
be there in that moment. So
it was a hard right versus the easy

431
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:38.400
wrong. We never know what it
is until in hindsight. Okay, Now,

432
00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:42.200
purpose in some ways always knows,
Okay, very rarely doesn't let us

433
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:47.599
know why. But if we do
follow it, we tend to find ourselves

434
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:51.720
accessing and operating from those choices that
end up being more the hard right versus

435
00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:56.839
easy wrong. You know, Nick, I totally get that because I left

436
00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:00.799
a perfectly good consulting job, you
know, to jump off a cliff and

437
00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:03.799
go do this purpose stuff. A
boy was that, you know, the

438
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:08.759
hard right over the easy wrong.
I really get it. Yeah, exactly.

439
00:31:08.839 --> 00:31:11.279
It's that tough you know, and
don't make it easy, girl.

440
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:14.839
It's like, this is a really
tough thing, and I just sometimes and

441
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:17.240
humble, I say, I say, oh my gosh, it's like,

442
00:31:17.319 --> 00:31:19.680
there's so many other things that would
be so much easier for me to do

443
00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:25.440
than in the purpose. So I'm
like, God right here when writing the

444
00:31:25.480 --> 00:31:29.119
book for me was the hard right, because I resisted writing the book for

445
00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:33.559
about five years, and my purpose
finally said, listen, I'm not gonna

446
00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:36.160
let you start. You're gonna I'm
gonna you know, he's just gonna do

447
00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:40.720
this thing. So it's like,
oh my god. Yeah, So anyway,

448
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:44.319
I got that, and that's how
I actually finally birthed my first draft

449
00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:47.079
of my first book. I promised
myself i'd do it by the end of

450
00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:48.400
last year, and I did do
it, Nick, So you're right,

451
00:31:49.359 --> 00:31:53.359
it does work, this purpose stuff. So all right, let's grab our

452
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:57.119
last break here. I'm Elise Cortez, I'm your host. We are on

453
00:31:57.119 --> 00:32:01.119
the air with Nick Craig. He
is the author of the newly published book

454
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:06.400
Leading from Purpose and the president of
Core Leadership Institute, where he guides executives

455
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:08.759
on the journey to discover and lead
with purpose. Stay with us, We'll

456
00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:34.559
be right back. Alise Cortez is
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

457
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:39.160
She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her

458
00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:45.319
expertise to your organization. She will
help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that

459
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:50.319
will increase employee engagement, performance and
retention. To learn more or to invite

460
00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:54.640
Elise to speak to your organization,
please visit her at www dot Elise Cortez

461
00:32:54.759 --> 00:33:00.559
dot com. She would welcome the
opportunity to help get your employees working on

462
00:33:00.599 --> 00:33:10.720
purpose. This is working on Purpose
with Elise Cortez. To reach our program

463
00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:16.960
today, send an email to Elise
ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com.

464
00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:28.000
Now back to working on Purpose.
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome

465
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:30.039
back to working on purpose if you're
just tuning in. My guest is Nick

466
00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:34.519
Craig. He is the author of
the newly published book Leading from Purpose and

467
00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:37.200
the president of the Core Leadership Institute, where he guides executives on the journey

468
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:42.480
to discover and lead with purpose.
He has worked with organizations including Ben and

469
00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:45.319
Jerry's Heineken, IMG Bank, Lego, inn A Lever, and the United

470
00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:50.920
States Military Academy at West Point.
I'm your host, Elise Cortez. So

471
00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:52.480
for this last segment here, Nick, we don't have much time here,

472
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:55.079
but I definitely want to hit a
couple of high points that I think are

473
00:33:55.119 --> 00:34:01.519
hopelessly fascinating. Hopelessly, yes,
I find it fascinating, so hopefully somebody

474
00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:06.640
else in the audience will too.
But we're still talking about impact from purpose,

475
00:34:06.720 --> 00:34:08.840
and one of the things that you
distinguish in your book is fulfillment versus

476
00:34:08.920 --> 00:34:15.360
happiness. Say more about that.
Oh yeah, so look, it turns

477
00:34:15.400 --> 00:34:23.000
out that purpose and happiness are not
directly connected to each other. Everyone thinks

478
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:27.599
that if you have much, if
you're clear on your purpose, that your

479
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:32.199
life you'll be much happier and so
forth. And actually it's an interesting reality

480
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:36.639
is that for many of the people
I know, is that they have been

481
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:45.480
willing to postpone instantane is happiness for
purpose. That purpose will have us be

482
00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:51.079
willing to persevere and do the tough
stuff much much longer than we would be

483
00:34:51.159 --> 00:34:58.199
otherwise, and in some ways postpone
the happiness piece. Mean, there's a

484
00:34:58.199 --> 00:35:02.559
lot of research around being a parent, okay, and it turns out that

485
00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:07.559
if you have one kid, it
has a little bit of impact negatively on

486
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:10.320
your happiness. But if you have
two kids, it's like it's really clearly

487
00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:14.880
has an impact. And the challenges
is that none of us would give up

488
00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:17.079
having our kids because of the meaning
that it brings to us. Right,

489
00:35:17.960 --> 00:35:23.559
So I think that when we look
at there's a deeper fulfillment the purpose's purpose

490
00:35:23.639 --> 00:35:30.360
brings to us and satisfaction. Happiness
is. I have a benefit of working

491
00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:34.039
with Ben and Jerry's and Heineken.
If I give you Ben and Jerry's and

492
00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:37.400
Heineken, and you know you have
enough of it, you'll be very happy

493
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:39.119
for a small for a period of
time. Now there's a hangover that comes

494
00:35:39.119 --> 00:35:42.320
from both of those. Oh yeah, it's just going to say what a

495
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:45.320
great thing. Ice cream and beer
works for me, I was actually working

496
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:47.360
with Ben and Jerry's once and I
saw the Heineken truck pull up, and

497
00:35:49.679 --> 00:35:52.119
so I finally have gotten both of
these guys in the same place at the

498
00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:55.280
same time. Now that I'm working
with Lego, I'm trying to see if

499
00:35:55.320 --> 00:35:59.519
we can get all three of them
together and see if we come up with

500
00:35:59.519 --> 00:36:04.320
a whole new product suite. So
anyway, will love it all the innovation

501
00:36:04.360 --> 00:36:08.119
that can come from working on a
purpose too. Right. Well, So

502
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:12.119
another part of your book that I
think is quite interesting, the whole piece

503
00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:17.559
of saving yourself and saving the world. You talk about how saving the world

504
00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:22.360
is very different from leading a life
of purpose, because even the guys selling

505
00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:28.320
Jiffy peanut butter needs purpose. So
what do you mean? So one of

506
00:36:28.360 --> 00:36:31.159
the biggest places if I look at
most of the people I've worked with,

507
00:36:31.199 --> 00:36:36.599
when they get clear on what their
purposes, they quickly go running out of

508
00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:39.920
the room and they go impact all
the people around them, And it is

509
00:36:40.159 --> 00:36:45.039
incredible to watch. The real impact
that these individuals have is they now know

510
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:50.360
why they're here. But what happens
over time is that when I see them

511
00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:54.880
about two or three years later,
it's like it looks like somebody threw them

512
00:36:54.920 --> 00:36:59.079
in the lake and they're like just
coming out and they're like a little bit

513
00:36:59.119 --> 00:37:01.159
whatever, and I go, so
let's go up with you. Well,

514
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:06.159
it turns out that they forgot to
do one critical thing that if they don't

515
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:08.960
do then it's not going to work
for a long term. Is they forgot

516
00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:14.920
to apply their purpose to themselves.
And so, as I talked about this

517
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:17.480
particular case in the book, I
had a woman who ended up working as

518
00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:22.800
head of HR for the World Food
Program and she was literally saving women's lives,

519
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:30.920
and her purpose was about helping women, helping the women inside of us,

520
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:34.119
and we all have that that isn't
taken care of, and helping take

521
00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:37.480
care of that part of us.
And she was doing this in refugee camps

522
00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:42.920
and everywhere else and dealing with all
kinds of amazing turnarounds and things. But

523
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:47.039
the challenge was is that her physical
body was falling apart. Wow. And

524
00:37:47.079 --> 00:37:52.639
what we realized was is that she
was applying her purpose to every person on

525
00:37:52.679 --> 00:37:55.119
the planet but herself. The other
fun example I have is I had a

526
00:37:55.159 --> 00:38:02.400
woman, another lady, who was
of sustainability for a big company and she

527
00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:06.599
was physically falling apart, I said, well, how sustainable is that?

528
00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:13.320
Okay? And it's just it just
goes to reinforce the fact that the most

529
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:20.480
important and powerful area of congruency for
each of us is to apply our purpose

530
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:23.320
not just to the rest of the
world, but also to ourselves. And

531
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:28.519
it's the reason why most of us
don't do that is because we don't think

532
00:38:28.519 --> 00:38:31.559
we deserve it. It's funny you
say this, Nick. I'm out speaking

533
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:35.760
here in about three weeks through a
group of women who are in healthcare,

534
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:37.400
and part of the message is,
hey, look, don't forget to take

535
00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:42.880
care of yourself as you're out there
caring for everyone else. I don't know

536
00:38:42.920 --> 00:38:45.000
why. I don't know if you
feel the same way, but it seems

537
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.519
like women are even more inclined to
to to do that where they're caring for

538
00:38:49.559 --> 00:38:52.360
others at the expense of themselves.
Do you agree with that or my way

539
00:38:52.360 --> 00:38:59.000
off? No. I think that
if we take it outside of the physical

540
00:38:59.079 --> 00:39:05.079
form and we take it into the
like the sense of masculine versus versus more

541
00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:12.639
feminine, the healer or archetype is
more of a feminine architype you could argue,

542
00:39:13.159 --> 00:39:17.519
and I think with that it is
one that tends to cause the healer

543
00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:22.920
is the last person to get healed. And I definitely think that, you

544
00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:27.840
know, I know a lot of
people, a lot of women who are

545
00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:32.000
just so humbled by trying to take
care of everybody else. Yes, and

546
00:39:34.039 --> 00:39:37.800
it's a friend of mine refers to
it as the big little one. They

547
00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:40.320
were always the more adult one in
the system, even when they were a

548
00:39:40.400 --> 00:39:45.599
kid, and they never learned how
to be taken care of. Okay,

549
00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:47.800
I have Well, my wife is
a nurse and she's the worst person when

550
00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:53.760
she's sick. Oh, I just
got access to something for myself. Or

551
00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:59.320
that I am the oldest of four
and I just came back from burying my

552
00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:02.679
mother or she was cremated, and
it it didn't even occur to me not

553
00:40:02.760 --> 00:40:06.719
to take the helm of all that
and just run with it. And so

554
00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:08.800
you just gave me something. Thank
you, Nick, I'm so welcome.

555
00:40:08.840 --> 00:40:14.880
I mean, I think that the
you know, we see purpose and we

556
00:40:14.960 --> 00:40:16.880
see it as something that we can
go change the world with. But I

557
00:40:16.920 --> 00:40:22.039
truly believe that the world that has
to be changed versus the one that's inside

558
00:40:22.119 --> 00:40:27.840
us. And when we are healed
ourselves, we heal other people without actually

559
00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:32.159
having to heal them. So then
we have to put all this effort into

560
00:40:32.199 --> 00:40:36.280
it. We have to make all
this noise and all this it has to

561
00:40:36.320 --> 00:40:38.880
be such a big show, and
then we feel exhausted at the end of

562
00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:42.719
it. I'm like, Okay,
well, you know that's not very saying.

563
00:40:42.760 --> 00:40:45.840
It's distainable. If we look at
the planet and we look at climate

564
00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:49.599
change, and we look at everything
at some level, at the its essence,

565
00:40:50.440 --> 00:40:54.400
it's our own inability to honor ourselves
that causes us not to honor this

566
00:40:54.440 --> 00:41:01.360
planet that we sit on. So
it's I've had evening sessions with people where

567
00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:05.320
we really go and look at where
are we leading from our purpose and where

568
00:41:05.320 --> 00:41:07.920
are we not in our life and
our ourselves. And I have gotten more

569
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.679
grown men who have never cried in
their life to be in tears as they

570
00:41:12.719 --> 00:41:16.880
finally look at the consequence of not
having taken care of themselves in the ways

571
00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:21.079
that they need to. Oh my
gosh, how beautiful, Nick, that

572
00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:23.519
you can do work in a way
that gives me an access to something like

573
00:41:23.559 --> 00:41:27.760
that. I always find it amazing, And I don't know why we're so

574
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:30.760
hard as society on men so that
they feel like they can't cry. But

575
00:41:30.880 --> 00:41:32.639
if you can get them to cry
and get that access, Nick, that's

576
00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:38.400
amazing work. I am the magic
at making people cry. I've gotten better

577
00:41:38.440 --> 00:41:40.800
and I just I just talk right
through it that you know, my masscre

578
00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:44.760
is running down my face and I
might be sobbing a little bit, but

579
00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:46.599
I can get right through it.
I think here's the thing. I think

580
00:41:46.639 --> 00:41:50.199
it a beautiful thing about. Let's
talk about crying for a one second.

581
00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.199
You know, outside of being an
actor or an actress, for the rest

582
00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:59.679
of us, probably one of the
few emotions that truly are impossible to fake

583
00:42:00.119 --> 00:42:05.599
is when we cry. Yeah,
and it crying is usually because something really

584
00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:09.199
touches us and it has such a
really impact. And I think that in

585
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:16.239
some ways purpose is right there,
okay, And so I just think that

586
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:22.760
it's when people end up crying around
me is is I know that that's a

587
00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:27.239
sacred place and it's a place in
which something authentic has shown up. And

588
00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:30.119
for the person they always say to
me, you know, I never I

589
00:42:30.159 --> 00:42:31.840
never cry, And I'm like,
that's good. Then this must be really

590
00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:36.320
a good moment because then let's go
find out what's on the other side of

591
00:42:36.360 --> 00:42:37.840
that, you know, Nick,
I so appreciate the word you use,

592
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:43.119
their sacred. Yes, I just
did a program on Friday with some women

593
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:45.480
and all of us, of course
shed tears, and it is it's sacred.

594
00:42:45.599 --> 00:42:49.840
It is a beautiful thing to be
able to get to live and be

595
00:42:49.960 --> 00:42:52.400
on that level with someone and get
access and open something with someone so they

596
00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:57.639
can be there for themselves, they
can let those tears come down their face.

597
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:01.239
Absolutely exactly. Well, we're getting
close to the to the end of

598
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:04.199
the show already, and I wish
I could have more time with you,

599
00:43:04.280 --> 00:43:06.519
because I love what you're up to
and how you go about it. But

600
00:43:06.559 --> 00:43:07.880
I have at least a couple more
questions I want to ask you. One.

601
00:43:08.039 --> 00:43:13.079
This is kind of a burning question
for me. You warn't us somewhere

602
00:43:13.079 --> 00:43:15.719
in your book or forget where to
be careful to not let our strengths get

603
00:43:15.719 --> 00:43:19.760
in the way of our purpose.
What what do you mean by this?

604
00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:23.880
How would our strengths be detrimental to
our purpose? Yeah? I didn't particularly

605
00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:31.559
like this chapter, and so you
know, here's that what I've discovered is,

606
00:43:34.159 --> 00:43:37.320
look, well there's a lot there's
a lot of narrative around you know,

607
00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:42.239
focus on your strengths and so forth. You know, Purpose is bigger

608
00:43:42.280 --> 00:43:49.000
than our strengths are, and in
some sense we will use our strengths in

609
00:43:49.159 --> 00:43:52.960
spite of our purpose. And I
think that some sence, Purpose is going

610
00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.800
to have uscpe places that our strengths
might not have us go, and may

611
00:43:55.840 --> 00:43:59.760
have us work on things that,
for the most part, we don't even

612
00:43:59.760 --> 00:44:02.280
think as a strength. But in
some sense a purpose doesn't care about that.

613
00:44:04.840 --> 00:44:09.760
I mean, I have certain strengths, and you know, one of

614
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:15.079
the stories I tell is about I
raised two girls, and I'm really great

615
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:21.719
at being on stage and running around
teaching all this stuff, and being at

616
00:44:21.760 --> 00:44:24.760
home and being just slapping the kids
around was never a strength for me,

617
00:44:25.480 --> 00:44:30.920
right, And so I went and
did all my strengths. And the problem

618
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.480
was that then at some point the
girls we had one of those evenings in

619
00:44:35.519 --> 00:44:38.679
which everything went wrong. The girls
are yelling and screaming at me because I

620
00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:42.559
picked them up too early, and
then I'm yelling and screaming at them and

621
00:44:43.119 --> 00:44:45.159
everyone, and it's just so awful. And the next day they say,

622
00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:47.280
you know, Dad, we don't
want to come so we don't want to

623
00:44:47.320 --> 00:44:51.480
spend any more time with you.
Now I'm divorced, so this is a

624
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:54.599
slight dilemma here. I am teaching
programs on purpose and my two girls are

625
00:44:54.599 --> 00:44:59.199
like, Dad, we don't want
to hang out with you. And you

626
00:44:59.199 --> 00:45:00.280
know, in that moment, and
I realized, you know, if I

627
00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:04.320
was going to live my purpose,
it wasn't about well my you know,

628
00:45:04.920 --> 00:45:07.440
focusing on my strength wasn't going to
get me where I needed to go.

629
00:45:08.239 --> 00:45:12.199
Well, I think you say it
really beautifully in the book. If I'm

630
00:45:12.239 --> 00:45:14.239
sure I'll busher this, you can, you can fix it for me.

631
00:45:14.320 --> 00:45:17.119
But you say that really purposes the
foundation on which we can then use or

632
00:45:17.159 --> 00:45:22.440
work and add leverage our purpose,
our values something like that. Yes.

633
00:45:22.960 --> 00:45:28.719
Yeah, And in some sense it's
at that place that you know, all

634
00:45:28.760 --> 00:45:31.280
these other things we can develop,
that purpose is the one thing that is

635
00:45:31.320 --> 00:45:37.000
always there. Okay, I love
that. So I think this is probably

636
00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:38.199
gonna be one of our last questions
here, Nick, And this one is

637
00:45:38.559 --> 00:45:42.480
very, very very important too.
It's it's the mastery question. So,

638
00:45:42.559 --> 00:45:45.119
once we have found our purpose,
how do we continue to master it and

639
00:45:45.239 --> 00:45:49.239
live from it across all parts of
our lives? How do we make sure

640
00:45:49.239 --> 00:45:52.880
it doesn't go away? Yeah?
And so I think this is the way

641
00:45:54.559 --> 00:46:00.599
the challenge about your living your purpose
is that you mostly when you're living in

642
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:07.280
your purpose, you don't notice that
it's only when you throw it when you

643
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:12.239
were not, and it starts to
really get to be awfully painful that you

644
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:15.519
realize that you're not and you step
back in. So it's a cycle.

645
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:20.000
Now when you know what your purpose
is is the cycle takes a lot less

646
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:23.719
time and you iterate through it.
And you know, I've had a number

647
00:46:24.159 --> 00:46:32.760
of executives that I've worked with in
leaders where helping them see where are they

648
00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:37.480
leading from purpose and where were they
not and how would they bring it into

649
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:42.920
that situation was the biggest transformation in
their lives. And one of the stories

650
00:46:42.920 --> 00:46:45.519
I told in the book was of
a guy who was a senior who ran

651
00:46:45.920 --> 00:46:50.679
a business. It was very successful. He was a high flyer and he

652
00:46:50.760 --> 00:46:52.119
was great at being in front of
a room or one on one, but

653
00:46:52.119 --> 00:46:57.199
when he was managing his team,
he would answer the questions before anybody would

654
00:46:57.199 --> 00:47:01.280
even know what the question was.
Wow. And you know what he realized

655
00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:07.280
was that if he was going to
live his purpose, he really had to

656
00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:13.840
bite his time and allow others to
really give their gift. And it was

657
00:47:13.880 --> 00:47:16.679
a It was an incredible insight for
him to see how this pattern fe feels

658
00:47:16.719 --> 00:47:23.239
around the discipline and the rigor required
to learn this process of being this deeper

659
00:47:23.800 --> 00:47:29.000
fuller Wiser bought part of his his
purpose. Said to him, that's great

660
00:47:29.079 --> 00:47:35.760
that you, But if you really
want to master purpose, here's the tears,

661
00:47:35.800 --> 00:47:39.239
the dark place you have to go
through. Wow, us do the

662
00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:43.880
hard stuff that we wouldn't do otherwise, all right, and that is a

663
00:47:43.880 --> 00:47:45.840
beautiful way for us to finish.
Nick, I really want to thank you

664
00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:50.239
so much for taking time out of
your crazy busy schedule to join us for

665
00:47:50.280 --> 00:47:52.840
this conversation. I was so looking
forward to sharing it with with my listeners

666
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.440
across the globe. So thank you
for being on working on Purpose. Well,

667
00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:01.360
it's wonderful being on this call with
you. I just love your level

668
00:48:01.559 --> 00:48:07.000
of energy and what you bring to
this dialogue about purpose. So at least,

669
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:09.760
thank you so much for allowing me
to participate with you on this journey.

670
00:48:09.760 --> 00:48:13.199
Thank you, Nick, it's it's
it is a great journey, one

671
00:48:13.320 --> 00:48:15.920
well worth going after. So if
you want to learn more about Nick Craig,

672
00:48:16.039 --> 00:48:20.159
his book Leading from Purpose, or
the work Keen his team are doing

673
00:48:20.159 --> 00:48:22.440
to help leaders discover and lead from
their purpose. Visit their website. It's

674
00:48:22.559 --> 00:48:28.920
core Leader dot com again chord leader
dot com. If you miss last week's

675
00:48:28.920 --> 00:48:30.559
show, you can always catch a
recorded podcast. We were on the air

676
00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:35.599
with Max Hanson of White Scouts.
They are a recruiting firm that focuses on

677
00:48:35.639 --> 00:48:39.000
placing executives with purpose. Next week, we'll be on the air with Rona

678
00:48:39.079 --> 00:48:44.480
Zia about talking about her book Your
Hidden Light, a personal guide to creating

679
00:48:44.519 --> 00:48:46.360
your desired life. See you then, remember that work is at least one

680
00:48:46.360 --> 00:48:54.440
third of our life, so let's
work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed

681
00:48:54.480 --> 00:48:59.880
this week's program. Be sure to
tune in to Working on Purpose, featuring

682
00:49:00.079 --> 00:49:04.800
your host, Alice Cortez, each
week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel.

683
00:49:05.320 --> 00:49:07.440
This week, find your life's purpose
at work.