Daily Archives: January 29, 2009

What is Purposeful Leadership?

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nexusdarkerfontcoverLeadership has been defined as the act of influencing others. This definition works well when describing a quality in an individual, but when a deeper understanding of leadership is sought the word becomes much more mysterious.

Why do so many people view some American presidents, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, as great leaders? What made them leaders? What about inspirational leaders, like Mohandas Gandhi and Mother Theresa? How were some of these inspirational leaders able to influence other leaders?

Learn Leadership secrets: Masters of the Game – Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness

View Prem Chopra’s lectures on YouTube (video): Lectures on Purposeful Leadership

Create Value with Quality, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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The following article is excerpted from a lecture by Prem Chopra on “Quality Improvement through Purposeful Action,” at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga in September 2006. The text of the entire lecture can be found in Masters of the Game: Reaching Beyond the Nexus to Success and Happiness.nexusdarkerfontcover1

Can you cite some examples that shed light on the content of this article?

You can spend a lot of money for a fancy Cadillac. It is a beautiful car, but if it does not provide value to the customer, the business will ultimately collapse. Value is measured in terms of features, functionality, reliability, longevity, ease of maintenance, and ease of repair. You must continue to improve and innovate to enhance these attributes in the products and services you offer. These are essential aspects of quality control or quality improvement. I do not like the word control. Control is a very static word. It implies unidirectional and unilateral standard-setting and direction.Continuous measurement and improvement of quality is the key to maximizing value. You must measure and improve. You cannot improve something that you cannot measure.

So, what is the bottom-line for continuous quality improvement? The answer lies in the history of the American electronics and software industries – Innovate and improve quality. Do what has not been done before—that is the meaning of innovation. Give people freedom to think and work on their ideas. Give more value to the customer. That is the philosophy of the successful entrepreneur.Purposeful entrepreneurship can be applied to any endeavor, including academics–you can be a purposeful and entrepreneurial teacher. What made the United States so technologically advanced was the entrepreneurial spirit. If you want to discover your propensity to be an entrepreneur, or to know your giver-taker balance, play the BrookMaster game at www.purposefulaction.com

Managing Projects with Purposeful Action

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Premise of this Post: “Managing Projects is a special case of Managing Action.”

Take the example of a construction project, and discuss how purposeful action can be applied to manage it effectively.

Here are some thoughts to consider:

All projects and companies are built upon a collection of actions by one or more individuals and are dependent on other individuals as well as “geo-environmental” influences. Therefore, Project Management can be viewed as a special case of Purposeful Action. The First Principle of Purposeful Action covers all the steps required to conceive, design, implement, evaluate, renew and complete any project successfully. To achieve success and well as fulfillment of the purpose of the project, the remaining three principles of Purposeful Action (www.purposefulaction.com) also must be applied to all aspects of the project.

In this “Managing Projects” category of the Purposeful Action Blog we will discuss and explore how Purposeful Action assures successful project management.