I have found that over the years, without a Greater Goal to serve, the only thing people have to serve is themselves—and we have all seen the negative effect of self-serving leadership in every segment of our society. That's why I'm excited about this book.
Wouldn't you love to come home from work every night knowing that you gave your very best for a worthy cause? How would it be if you shared in setting the most important goals at work, even if you're not the company president? And what would it be like if you knew exactly how your efforts at work were part of creating a community capable of outstanding performance? My friends Ken Jennings and Heather Hyde invite you to imagine your work life this way as they show you what it takes to create high performance based on high purpose. Welcome to The Greater Goal: Connecting Purpose and Performance, a wonderful expedition into how people, teams, and organizations create shared purpose for the greater good and achieve outstanding organizational results. It's a story, a road map, and a journey with a very special purpose.
For over a decade my colleagues and I have been speaking about how organizational high performance is achieved by focusing on the “triple bottom line”—being the employer of choice, the provider of choice, and the investment of choice. Over time, we learned that high-performing organizations have leadership that influences people by unleashing their power and potential to impact the greater good. But it's not just about setting and achieving more and more difficult goals. Leaders who can create, with others, the organization's shared Greater Goal and show how people can align their best efforts to it show the way to high performance.
Ken and Heather have chosen to illustrate the power of having a Greater Goal through the story of Alex Beckley, your average troubled leader. I love the business fable format, and I believe readers do too—especially when they get a new insight into a simple, time-tested truth. Books like the one you are holding can cut straight to the heart of how you think and feel about life at work by tapping into your own truth—your experiences, memories, perceptions—while at the same time offering new ways of seeing. Stories like this allow readers to suspend their skepticism and consider the power of personal narrative. Those of us who have been around the block a time or two know that our narratives become so deeply rooted that they can run our lives—even determine our destiny.
In The Greater Goal, Ken and Heather invite you to listen to one leader's story and to look at your own. The facts and figures of your accomplishments are not the whole picture. Wherever we contribute in our organizations and communities, each of us leaves behind a legacy—a story of what's possible. This book encourages you to form your legacy around a Greater Goal and connect your high purpose with high performance.
Imagine that life's most stubborn obstacles—the reasons why you fall short of your potential for greater good—can be left behind with the next decision you make. You don't need to have a life-threatening wake-up call (like the hero of this tale) to give yourself a second chance. Transformational change can also take place in the small, everyday choices we make.
Seeking the greater good, and seeking it together, is truly a worthy Greater Goal.
Ken Blanchard
January 2012
