Why I Started Lead with Purpose [039]

I spent more than thirty years in the operating chair, running companies big and small, public and private.  The most important lesson from all of it had nothing to do with a strategy deck or a board presentation. The conversations that change a leader are almost never the polished ones. They happen off the stage, after the board meeting, when someone you respect tells you the truth.

I started Lead with Purpose™ to make a difference in the future of work and leadership.

There are no scripts. No soundbites. LWP is Long-form, unedited dialogue with people who have sat in the chair and made the hard calls. I wanted the leaders I work with, those I don’t and the world, to hear what it sounds like when someone has pulled a business, a team, or their own life back from the edge.

My goal is to directly impact one million leaders.  To spread my vision about the future of leadership and the importance of purpose, vision, principles, and the impact all of that has on leaders, their families, communities, and the world. 

Seven episodes in, I owe a thank-you. To the guests who gave their time and their honesty, and to you, for listening, watching, sharing, and writing back. The response to Lead With Purpose™ has been overwhelming and humbling

Our first show was with Rita McGrath, my friend and collaborator at Valize and one of the world's top-ranked strategists, recorded at Columbia Business School. Then Aidan McCullen, a former professional rugby player who rebuilt his whole identity and now studies and teaches reinvention and hosts one of the most highly regarded podcasts in the world. JoAnn Garbin took us inside Microsoft and asked why most leaders are far less ready for AI than they believe. Brendan Dowling, who coaches roughly two hundred Irish CEOs a year, made the case for betting on the next generation. Usman Humayun showed how to make marketing tell the truth, and how he ran his own health the way he runs a campaign. Bryce Hoffman, who chronicled Alan Mulally's turnaround of Ford, walked through the discipline of assuming you might be wrong, which is the 51% Rule™ at work. And Carl Tishler made the case that the hardest company you will ever run is yourself.

Every one of them had to give up a version of certainty before they found their purpose. None of them got there by optimizing. They got there by deciding what actually mattered and building their life around it.  They are all Makers and Builders.

That is the work I care about. There is more coming, and I’m excited about everyone we have booked!

Here are the first seven. If one of them resonates, send it to someone who needs to hear it. If you like what we're talking about, please subscribe.

1. Rita McGrath: The Future of Work, AI, and Leading Through Transformation

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

2. Aidan McCullen: A Life Leadership Journey

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

3. JoAnn Garbin: Designing AI for the Forest, Not the Factory

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

4. Brendan Dowling: Bold by Design

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

5. Usman Humayun: From Math to Marketing

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

6. Bryce Hoffman: Ford, Mulally, Red Teaming and the Discipline of Assuming You're Wrong

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

7. Carl Tishler: CEO of Self

Watch or listen:  YouTube   |   Apple   |   Spotify

Be well,

Ron

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