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Leading with Noble Purpose
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Leading with Noble Purpose

How to Create a Tribe of True Believers

Lisa Earle McLeod
Wiley, 2016
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Sales leadership consultant Lisa Earle McLeod teaches that when organizations infuse their operations with a “Noble Purpose” – when they focus on improving customers’ lives instead of only on profits – they inspire workers to regard their jobs with joy. She details how companies can discover their “Noble Sales Purpose” (NSP) and share it to motivate employees. Even while explaining the learning curve, heavy agenda of employee events and persuasive campaign that inculcating a Noble Purpose may require, McLeod warns leaders not to turn their Noble Purpose into the latest “flavor-of-the-month initiative.” Instead, she says, teach your employees how to identify their values, express them in their work and explain why their NSP matters to them. getAbstract recommends her worthwhile counsel to senior leaders who want to refocus their organizations based on having a Noble Purpose.

Summary

Monster.com and “Noble Purpose”

During a Super Bowl broadcast, Monster.com, the job site, ran memorable “When I Grow Up” commercials featuring children saying, “When I grow up I want to be a yes-man or yes-woman.” Another said, “When I grow up, I want to claw my way into middle management.”

Monster’s ads delivered the message: “You deserve a better job, and we want to help you find it.” That was Monster’s “Noble Purpose.” Founder Jeff Taylor connected the two ideas of a more desirable job and an improved life. This Noble Purpose paid dividends for Monster: In 2006, its website was one of the top 20 most visited on the Internet.

In 2007, a new team, led by CEO Sal Iannuzzi, took over Monster. Iannuzzi didn’t emphasize better employment opportunities for job searchers. He cared about corporate earnings. Without a leader dedicating the company to finding more fulfilling jobs for applicants, Monster’s purpose lost its nobility. Iannuzzi told employees his sole priority was “increasing shareholder value.” This new direction disappointed Monster employees. Some wrote online comments suggesting that Monster had “lost its soul.” Such employee comments emerge when companies...

About the Author

Consultant Lisa Earle McLeod, a sales leadership expert, also wrote Selling with Noble Purpose.

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    E. C. 7 years ago
    Awesome conceptualization that transforms a generally-regarded-as-CSR idea into a precious gem that can driving business & builds leadership both at a personal & corporate level. Excellent summary that encapsulates the ideas bringing them across so succinctly that impulses me to want to get the book itself for a good read. Well done getAbstract team!!
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    A. P. 8 years ago
    Inspiring to build purpose as Noble Purpose ..... !!
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    G. N. 9 years ago
    great story