On Purpose Leadership by Dominick Quartuccio is a book on creating your leadership purpose. The leadership pyramid has four essential parts: purpose, principles, plan, and practices.
Book Title: On Purpose Leadership: Master the Art of Leading Yourself to Inspire and Impact Others
Author: Dominick Quartuccio
Date of Reading: January 2022
Rating: 7/10
What Is Being Said In Detail:
On Purpose Leadership published by TCK Publishing is an interesting book that guides us on how to create purposeful leadership in our personal and professional lives. The premise of the book is that you need four tenets to be On Purpose Leadership: purpose, principles, plan, and practices. The book has seven chapters:
- Your On Purpose Leader Manifesto
- Off Purpose
- On Purpose
- On Principles
- On Plan
- On Practices
- A Life Lived On Purpose
Introduction
Introduction is about the two problems of today’s leadership:
- Leaders who are trying to lead others before mastering the art of leading themselves
- Leaders who can’t master leading themselves without a connection to their purpose (and their work can’t be seen as the enemy of the purpose).
Your On Purpose Leader Manifesto
This short chapter explains a Manifesto (statement) on what you will do and how you will lead yourself to be an example to others.
Off Purpose
Off Purpose is about resistance to yoru leadership and that resistance is always one thing—distrust. The distrust comes in three forms:
- Distrust of The System (authority, big business, government, etc.)
- Distrust of Themselves (distrust the ability to get things done and distrust in their ability to discern and believe in a leader who has their best interests at heart.
- Distrust of You (when you haven’t mastered your purpose).
On Purpose
On Purpose consists of knowing what gives you your greatest energy, leading with intentionality, and surrounding yourself with people who demand the highest version of you. Your purpose leaves the world a better place than how you found it.
People make two mistakes here:
- Believing purpose is some hidden thing that exists outside of yourself that you must venture far and wide to find.
- Believing purpose must come in the form of a superhuman achievement that requires years, decades, or a lifetime to realize.
On Principles
Your principles represent your beliefs and guide how you take action in accordance with living your purpose. Your principles show you the way.
There are three principles of On Principles leadership:
- Master the Art of Leading Yourself Before Leading Others
- Everyone Wants to Be Led
- Create Environments Where You and Those You Lead Can Thrive
On Plan
Your plan is about execution, your way of bringing essence into form. Your plan must be simple, clear, and energizing. Your plans make victory inevitable.
There are three steps to design a one-year plan:
- Do an Inventory of Your Previous Year.
- Pick a One-Word Theme for the Year Ahead.
- Take Inspired Action.
A sound plan clarifies, simplifies, and energizes. Five planning tools to ensure execution are systems, projects, periods of time, scorecards, and accountability.
On Practices
Your practices refine the skills you need to live as an On Purpose Leader. These are the intentional routines and habits you will use to optimize your days, weeks, and years. Your practices sharpen your sword.
There are three foundations to your On Practices:
- Optimize the Bookends (morning and evening routine) of Your Day
- Create your Own Practices
- Implement Team Practices
A Life Lived On Purpose
This part serves as a closing statement of the author where he shares a story from his life and asks the reader to imagine their life in 10, 20, and 30 years if they are to implement On Purpose Leadership.
Most Important Keywords, Sentences, Quotes:
INTRODUCTION
“”You cannot ask your leaders to be bold and face the discomfort that comes with change unless you’re willing to embody that yourself,” I explained.”
“On Purpose Leaders know their “why,” make every decision with intentionality, and live the example they wish to inspire in others.”
“| ON PURPOSE LEADERSHIP | You must see your present-day work as a portal to your purpose, right here and now, in order for you to lead from your highest potential. “
“These managers would say all the right things, but their teams wouldn’t respond because the manager wouldn’t be modeling the behavior he or she spoke of.”
“Your mere presence will inspire others to raise their standards and meet you where you’re at. This book is your guide to leading On Purpose.”
YOUR ON PURPOSE LEADER MANIFESTO
/
OFF PURPOSE
“I’ve gotten really good at delivering a B effort and packaging it up so everyone thinks it’s an A.””
“Remember, you cannot be drifting and On Purpose at the same time.”
“If you’re hitting the collective goal at the expense or ignorance of their individual desires, your people will eventually come to distrust your ability to help them achieve what’s most important to them.”
ON PURPOSE
“Here’s the important thing to understand: You do not need to know the endgame of following your Greatest Energy. Think of it like reading a book. If the story is captivating, you’ll keep reading even if you don’t know how it ends, right?”
“When you align 100 percent of your life around your Greatest Energy, you show up in the world energized, alive, and sharing your greatest gifts with everyone around you.” ( :109)
“People see you in one of three ways:”
“The “Then” Version of You:”
“The “Now” Version of You:”
“The “Highest” Version of You:”
ON PRINCIPLES
“The definition of a principle is: “A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.”
“On Purpose Leaders, however, subscribe to a defined set of principles where intentionality and integrity guide every behavior.”
ON PLAN
“All the inspiration in the world won’t help you successfully bring that dream into reality. As the saying goes, success is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.“
“A sound plan does these three things: 1. Clarifi es: You know why, how, and what you’re doing. 2. Simplifi es: It takes the complex and makes it straightforward. 3. Energizes: You feel driven, ready, and prepared to take inspired action from your Greatest Energy.”
“In the absence of clarity, plans fail.”
ON PRACTICES
“In the heat of battle, you can keep it all together and suppress things like fear, sleep deprivation, and the need for recovery. But once the battle nears its end, every bit of your wellbeing that you’ve been overlooking comes screaming to the surface.”
“Three foundations to ensure you are On Practice: 1. Optimize the Bookends of Your Day: Develop morning and evening routines. 2. Create Your Own Practices: Sharpen your sword. 3. Implement Team Practices: Sharpen your team’s sword.”
“Hence, your morning routine actually starts the evening before.”
“Rituals become habits. Habits don’t require willpower or discipline.“
A LIFE LIVED ON PURPOSE
“It doesn’t matter if you’re 22 or 72; it’s never too late to start living On Purpose.”
Book Review (Personal Opinion):
On Purpose Leadership is a book that will help you create your leadership journey from the highest principles and values all the way to the everyday actions, habits, and routines. Quartuccio supports his theories with plenty of examples from his life and other inspiring figures.
Rating: 7/10
This Book Is For (Recommend):
- A burned-out executive who wants to get a grip on her life
- A millennial who wants to create a direction for their life and stick to it
- A young professional who lost his inner fire and wants to rekindle it
If You Want To Learn More
Here’s a clip from a keynote speech Dominick had.
Dominick Quartuccio’s Speaker Reel
How I’ve Implemented The Ideas From The Book
On Purpose Leadership has plenty of great exercises and they can be helpful no matter which phase of life you’re in at the moment. When my life started shaking at its core, I did the exercise which helped me see who the people are who want the best for me and who are just the people who are content with who I am at the moment. It was a real eye-opener!
One Small Actionable Step You Can Do
Write down the list of the three most fundamental principles of your life. These will be the guiding blocks for your life’s success—personal and professional.
