Jan 24, 2018
Louis Efron is
the author of Purpose
Meets Execution: How Winning Organizations Accelerate Engagement
and Drive Profits, and How to Find a Job, Career and Life You
Love, and also a
contributing writer for Forbes and Huffington Post.
The
discussion starts with Louis’s journey through theater, the
corporate world, and how he came to see big disconnects between
personal purpose and corporate purpose. Louis created a Purpose
Alignment Score to help individuals discover their personal purpose
alignment in life by asking questions about themselves
(http://LouisEfron.com) .
Key Takeaways
[3:42] In
Purpose Meets
Execution, Louis writes
that businesses need to rethink the fundamental drivers for
success. Most employees do not see the P&L statement and they
have other drivers. Employees are motivated by the purpose of the
business beyond the P&L.
[7:07] It takes a leap of faith
to change. There is a fear in focusing on something other than
P&L. But studies show that having purpose gives a greater ROI
than profit alone, and new generations of workers will search for
jobs that embody purpose and mission.
[9:39] Tesla Motors created a
role for Louis of Head of Global Employee Engagement and Louis held
it for a year or two. Six years ago, Tesla had 600 employees; now
they have over 30,000 in an organization that prizes purpose. The
job was a catalyst for Louis’s thinking.
[11:27] Culture and mission
start at the top. If the top is broken, the whole organization is
broken. In a large organization, with a clear purpose, you have to
make sure that everyone at every level is executing their daily
work and seeing how it connects to the same purpose.
[14:33] Living for years in
Europe and Japan, Louis learned that there are cultural differences
in different nations. In a big, global organization the goal is
always to be the same, where possible; different, where needed. You
have to learn how to leverage cultural nuances to deliver what you
want to deliver. There’s a lack of understanding how people see
things differently in different parts of the world.
[24:37] Louis has a video, “The
Disengaged Clown,” on his site. Louis wrote it, directed it, and
acted in it. It is about a party clown who finds clowning is not
his calling in life. The moral is to find your strength. Our
stories influence our behavior, culture, and environment. Louis
compares directing a stage production to leading a corporate
organization.
[29:04] If you get people
connected to your organization to believe in what you believe (not
to think the same as you, but to accept your purpose), that’s going
to play out to your customer. It helps you sell more authentically.
It is a bridge between the personal and the corporate.
[32:14] A culture of trust
eliminates fear. People challenge, and contribute new ideas. They
know if they fail, and learn from it, they can bring about better
ways. A culture of fear stifles innovation and it all falls
apart.
LinkedIn: Louis Efron
Twitter: @LouisEfron
Website: LouisEfron.com
Website: PurposeMeetsExecution.com
Search for Louis on
Forbes and Huffington Post
Quotable Quotes
“Employees don’t get out of
bed in the morning to … add $10 million to a top
line.”
“If you change the way you
look at things, the things you look at change.“ — Wayne
Dyer
“In a big, global
organization the goal is always to be ‘same,’ where possible;
different, where needed.”
You are responsible for your
own curiosity.
“A great culture is built on
trust.”
“As a leader, you need to
both say the right things and do the right things but doing the
right things matters much more.”
If you’re talking a lot
about trust in your organization, it probably doesn’t exist
there.
“The more you can be
yourself in life, the more successful you’ll be.”
“Great leaders believe in
who they are. They’re authentic, they communicate in an authentic
way, and they live what they’re saying.”
When you have trust, it
eliminates fear. People are willing to challenge, bring new ideas,
fail and learn from it, to create new ideas.
Bio
Louis Efron is
the author of How to
Find a Job, Career and Life You Love and Purpose Meets Execution: How Winning
Organizations Accelerate Engagement and Drive Profits,
a contributing writer for
Forbes and Huffington Post.
Books mentioned in this episode
How to Find a Job, Career and Life
You Love: A journey to purpose, fulfillment and life
happiness,
by Louis Efron
Purpose Meets Execution: How
Winning Organizations Accelerate Engagement and Drive
Profits,
by Louis
Efron (Also available
at
Barnes &
Noble)
Start with Why: How Great
Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
The Experience
Economy, by B. Joseph
Pine II and James H. Gilmore