ked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus.

Let's be honest, this is just between us … are you one of the 10% who work purposefully to complete important tasks or one of the 90% that are frenzied and fed-up?

If frenzied and fed-up sounds right, join the 90% of those with responsibility for managing people and/or processes who self-sabotage by busily engaging in non-purposeful activities, procrastinating, detaching from their work and needlessly spinning their wheels.

OK, I'll be the first to admit it…I have been known to scurry around, multi-tasking away and at the end of the day I am horrified at what little I have actually accomplished.

It's called, "Busy Idleness" and it affects most of us. We have an easy and abundant access to knowledge and timesaving resources, yet we spend most of our time "making the inevitable happen". What that means is that all our activity doesn't achieve any measurable level of achievement beyond what would occur if we just sat around with our feet on the desk! What makes a real difference in outcomes is single minded focus on specific activities that can really make a difference.

What's our problem? Is it that we can't tell the difference between competing activities? Are we bereft of creative ideas and strategies? Are we so addicted – yes addicted - to the buzz of busyness that everything other than frazzled feels flat? Or, perhaps it's something even more?

Do you attend to the routine, day-to-day tasks, yet fail to seize opportunities to achieve something significant? This problem is nothing new. Stanford University Management Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD, and Robert Sutton, PhD, studied this dynamic for their book, "The Knowing-Doing Gap". They asked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus.

wheels.

OK, I'll be the first to admit it…I have been known to scurry around, multi-tasking away and at the end of the day I am horrified at what little I have actually accomplished.

It's called, "Busy Idleness" and it affects most of us. We have an easy and abundant access to knowledge and timesaving resources, yet we spend most of our time "making the inevitable happen". What that means is that all our activity doesn't achieve any measurable level of achievement beyond what would occur if we just sat around with our feet on the desk! What makes a real difference in outcomes is single minded focus on specific activities that can really make a difference.

What's our problem? Is it that we can't tell the difference between competing activities? Are we bereft of creative ideas and strategies? Are we so addicted – yes addicted - to the buzz of busyness that everything other than frazzled feels flat? Or, perhaps it's something even more?

Do you attend to the routine, day-to-day tasks, yet fail to seize opportunities to achieve something significant? This problem is nothing new. Stanford University Management Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD, and Robert Sutton, PhD, studied this dynamic for their book, "The Knowing-Doing Gap". They asked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus.

vity doesn't achieve any measurable level of achievement beyond what would occur if we just sat around with our feet on the desk! What makes a real difference in outcomes is single minded focus on specific activities that can really make a difference.

What's our problem? Is it that we can't tell the difference between competing activities? Are we bereft of creative ideas and strategies? Are we so addicted – yes addicted - to the buzz of busyness that everything other than frazzled feels flat? Or, perhaps it's something even more?

Do you attend to the routine, day-to-day tasks, yet fail to seize opportunities to achieve something significant? This problem is nothing new. Stanford University Management Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD, and Robert Sutton, PhD, studied this dynamic for their book, "The Knowing-Doing Gap". They asked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus.

icted - to the buzz of busyness that everything other than frazzled feels flat? Or, perhaps it's something even more?

Do you attend to the routine, day-to-day tasks, yet fail to seize opportunities to achieve something significant? This problem is nothing new. Stanford University Management Professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD, and Robert Sutton, PhD, studied this dynamic for their book, "The Knowing-Doing Gap". They asked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus.

ked: "Why do so much education and training, management consulting, and business research…produce so little change in what managers and organizations actually do?...Why [does] knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fail to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge?"

What It Takes to Be on Purpose

People who exhibit purposeful action possess two critical traits: energy and focus. Energy is not what I call "efforting" which equates to all that external activity and scrambling. Rather, energy is defined by your level of involvement in meaningful activities, propelled by both external resources such as technology. knowledge, working with a coach or business consultant and internal resources such as patience, listening , communication skills and business acumen. Purposeful action is self-generated, engaged and self-driven.

Where Do You (and Your Employees) Fit? Profiles of Behaviors

If 90% of managers/entrepreneurs and professionals fail to act purposefully in their everyday work, what exactly are they doing? Heike Bruch's and Sumantra Ghoshal's study, conducted over a 10-year period and published in "A Bias for Action", describes four profiles of managerial behavior that are measured by their levels of energy and action.

Where might you fit?

The Frenzied:

48% of managers are distracted and off-purpose due to the onslaught of tasks that face them each day. They may be highly energetic, but they are unfocused. They were found to be positive about their work as well as strongly identified with their jobs, but "the need for speed" prompts them to be unreflective. It is obvious that much more could be achieved if they consciously concentrated their efforts on what really matters. And, what really matters? Most business owners and managers don't think much beyond the moment and often, when asked, can't answer the question, "What really matters to your business?".

The Procrastinators:

30% percent of managers were observed to procrastinate on doing their organizations' most important work. They lack