Encore Profitable and Beautiful: Elevating Business to Soulful Heights

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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.

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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work to contribute their talents passionately and

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know their lives really matter. They
crave being part of an organization that inspires

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them and helps them grow into realizing
their highest potential. Business can be such

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a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want working

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on purpose. Now Here is your
host, doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome back

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to the Working and Purpose Program.
Thanks for you need again this week.

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Great to have you. I'm your
host, doctor Elise Cortez to an Eli

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from Dallas, which is home based. For me. If you don't know

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me yet, I'm a management consultant
specializing and meaning and purpose, organizational law

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of therapist, inspirational speaker, social
scientist, and author. My team and

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I help companies discover and articulate their
purpose to throw it through culture and operations.

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We work with forward thinking or forward
reaching organizations to develop inspirational leaders who

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create cultures where people actually want to
come to work and do their best.

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And we provide programs like the Grab
Youugusto that enable individual team members to discover

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and unleash their passion and purpose of
work to catalyze fulfillment, engagement, and

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productivity. You can learn more about
us and how we can work together at

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Elis Cortes dot com Orgusto Dashau dot
com. With us today is Stephen Morris,

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a brand and culture advisor, at
author and speaker. He worked with

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business leaders to mind articulate and activate
their driving belief system to create organizational integrity,

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evolved leaders, connected cultures, and
unignorable brands. He's the president of

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Matter Consulting and the author of the
Beautiful Business and Actual manifest to create to

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create an unignorable business with love at
the core. When we're talking about beautiful

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business, evolved leaders, and business
brand you Jose today from San Diego,

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California. Steven, Welcome to Working
on Purpose. Oh thank you, Elise.

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It's such a pleasure to be here
and have this conversation with you.

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I'm very excited me too. I
just need to share you with listeners around

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the world. This message is so
profound and so important and so timely.

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And your book, of course,
it's so beautiful Stephen. Here it is.

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Let me show it to our viewers. This is what it looks like,

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the beautiful business. I read it, of course cover to cover,

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and I want to dive in here
this first part to actually talk about what

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we mean by or what you mean
by a beautiful business. So if we

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can, maybe the best way to
start, I thought, is to have

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you open with the comparison and contrast. You talk about two distinct companies that

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you worked with early on in your
book, and I think if we contrast

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those we can start to distill more
of the essence of this conversation. So

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can you tell us about those two
companies? Yeah, well I can.

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I'll tell about the companies. I
won't mention the company names. That'd be

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great enough. In the book.
I call it the Monday client and the

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Tuesday Client story, and they're real
stories, but I don't call out their

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names because you know, they're really
anecdotes for the way a business can operate,

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and really they're anecdote for and really
even metaphors or how one set of

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leadership team can actually approach the work
at hand. And in this case,

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it was brand evolution work and a
little bit of culture work and how another

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leadership team can approach them very differently. So the quick story behind it is

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the Monday client, and it's worth
saying that they were both in more or

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less the same industry, the financial
services industry that they happened to be in.

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They were on different coasts Moms on
the west coasts on the East coast,

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and you know, the things that
they had in common is that they

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both have a national presence, and
they both handled lots of people's money,

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other people's money, and there's a
lot of things at stake in what they

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were doing. So the Monday client
is essentially it's a tale where the client

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leadership team really didn't have what I
would call evolve leadership. They were really

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out for one another, sometimes gunning
for one another, out for other people's

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jobs within the organizations. They were
not in it for the collective whole.

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They were you know, there was
a system essentially a top down management system,

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and there was a lot of confusion, chaos and dysfunction amongst the team.

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And in contrast, the Tuesday client, which was the following week,

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and I tell the story through the
lens of presentations of essentially findings reports for

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both clients that happened a week apart
on different sides of the coast. The

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Tuesday client had a completely different way
of operating within their business. The leaders

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on that particular team were conscientious and
thoughtful. They didn't deploy what we would

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call this command and control, a
top down sort of management system. And

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how they worked and because of that, the outcomes, the level of contribution,

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the level of creativity, the level
of openness, even the sense of

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belonging amongst that leadership team was exponentially
higher. And in the story I tell

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about not just my experiences with you
know, here's the contrast between these two

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different leadership groups, but here's the
contrast and not only how they approached the

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work, but even in the exponential
outcomes that the Tuesday client received over the

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Monday client. So very quickly,
i'll just cover this, the Monday client

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took significantly longer to realize even less
outcomes than the Tuesday client did, and

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they did so with massive turnover.
The Monday client have big turnover on their

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leadership team. There was in fighting. They actually spent more money achieving less

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results than the Tuesday client did,
and the Tuesday client achieved those results in

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half the amount of time that the
Monday client did. So it was an

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eye opening experience for me to have
those two frankly juxtaposed experiences with two clients

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that were in more or less the
same industry, but they had completely different

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leadership styles, completely different cultures,
and completely different ways of working with one

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another and even driving towards what they
even considered what were outcomes and measurements.

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I could go into a lot more
detail, and I want to be careful

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not to unveiled too much about the
downside of the Monday client and really spotlight

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on the upsides of the Tuesday client. Yeah, thanks Steve, And I

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just thought that was a great place
to start because it helps our listeners and

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viewers just kind of get right into
the space of business and how does it

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manifest and how does it show up, and so real live examples to open

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the space to start. And then
I want to talk about some of the

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principles of beautiful business as you describe
them in your book and for you listeners

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and viewers, why I think this
is so important, as you know,

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what Stephen has put forth, in
my view, is really an invitation for

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all of us to be able to
be more creative and intentional to rise our

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intentions to be able to create a
business that has even more beautiful impact than

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if we just go out to try
to just make money. And so if

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you would, Stephen talk to us
about at least it's just a few of

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the principles, the ones that that
maybe you're closest to your heart. Yeah,

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so there's really four core tenants to
the beautiful business that I believe are

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really important to employ and really corral
around within the organization. And it's probably

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fairly obvious to a lot of people
that this first attendant it really has to

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do with leadership, and it is
what I call evolved leadership. And this

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is where leaders become self aware individuals
or they are self aware individuals. And

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by self awareness I mean that they
have both the internal version and the external

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version of self awareness. Internal side
of self awareness means that they have a

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clear understanding of what their motivations are, what their drivers are, what their

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values are, what even their purposes. And the external side of the self

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awareness has to do with they're very
clear that they how they affect the people

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around them, and so in the
way they go about leading, they understand

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how the team is responding to them. They understand sort of the psychological mindset

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of the team around them, and
they're being very thoughtful about how they affect

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the environment that they're putting themselves into. We can you know a lot of

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science behind things like coregulation and self
regulation and self aware leaders because they have

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this strong sense of internal and external
self awareness, they really understand how to

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create a great environment for people to
thrive in. So that's the first tenant

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is what I call evolved leadership.
The second tenant is what I call belonging.

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Now a lot of people talk about
belonging. I don't. It's not

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my word. Everybody uses it for
an A Brown, I think, is

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the queen of belonging and our sort
of in our culture and society of these

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days. But it really it really
talks about how the company and how the

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individuals within the organization, how they
bond with the people. And this could

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be the employee side of the organization, or could be the customer side,

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or could even be considering how the
investors or the community or even partners within

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the organization, how they belong to
what we're doing. And belonging I believe

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happens when we create the sense of
psychological safety within the organization, and that's

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I believe starts with the leadership role, but then it's continued throughout the entire

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team that they have to actually carry
that mantle forward, and then they have

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a clear operationalized system of how we
communicate, how we treat one another within

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the organization. And when the diffusion
of psychological safety and this clear sort of

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operationalized system can create this operationalized system
and or operating system, if you will,

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of belonging both inside and outside.
So when we think about how do

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things like customer service happen and what
we call CX and an employee experience happen,

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when we have belonging in the organization, we can have a cultural sense

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of belonging for the employee experience,
and when we have belonging on the customer

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side of things, we can have
a customer experience sense of belonging where the

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customer feels like they are actually joining
the brand that they're buying from instead of

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just purchasing or having transactions. So
I think this attribute is belonging is really

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important, and then so belonging to
the second attribute. The third attribute is

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what I call magnetism. And this
is really on the external side of the

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world where we stop, we get
out of the business of chasing customers and

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we actually act like the flame and
not the moth, where we stop chasing

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customers out in the world and we
invite them in, and we invite them

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in through this attribute of belonging because
we, in some way, shape or

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form, have articulated from a brand
standpoint, here's what we believe, here's

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what our value system is, and
here's how we live up to that in

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the products and or services that we
create, and how customers respond to that,

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they say I want to be part
of that. They don't just buy

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from the brand, they actually join
the brand. So that's magnetism. And

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in the last element is this sort
of the full encompassing when all cylinders are

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happening within the organization and its integrity, so that which happens on the inside

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of the organization, our belief systems, our behaviors, and even how we

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treat one another within the organization,
as well as how we treat our customers

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and the environment and our community and
social justice issues. Thinks of that nature.

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All all of those things have an
integral system to them. So it

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begins with evolved leadership, it goes
into belonging, and then it goes into

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magnetism and integrity. And those are
the four key pillars or tenants that I

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tend to hit on throughout the Beautiful
Business. Well said Stephen, thank you.

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That just really open to space for
us. That was great, okay.

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And then next if we can,
because I think a lot of people

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who haven't been consuming this kind of
space like I have, or haven't read

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your book yet covered cover like I
have, don't still quite understand what we

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mean by beautiful business. So some
of the principles that you use in your

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book to describe it like you do, say things like, you know,

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work with beauty. And for those
of you who are watching this program,

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the painting behind Stephen, he painted
that he's an artist as well. So

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some of these principles, work with
beauty, integrate your worlds, live and

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work with soul, allow love to
show up in your business. These are

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some of the beautiful principles that you
show that you talk about, and as

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you and I said before we got
on air, are not articulated in today's

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business world. Yeah, so much
to go into their so much opportunity.

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Yeah. Yeah, So you know, let's talk about what I mean by

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beauty first, because you know,
in our Western culture, we tend to

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think about beauty as this superficial adornment
of things, how something looks, and

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in the world of business, we
would tend to think about that is how

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the business looks. And part of
the intent by writing the book was a

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reclamation or reclaiming of the definition of
beauty into the felt sense of beauty,

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the things that we can experience,
even having senses of transcendence and all.

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So when I'm thinking about beauty,
I'm thinking about how something feels or how

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you experience something. And so now
all of a sudden, when you begin

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to think about that from the context
of a business, all of a sudden,

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our entire sensory system could be enliven
not just our eyes the way something

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looks, but our heart and our
soul and our passion and the things that

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we learned to love in this life, which includes how we deploy and how

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we employ service to humanity into one
another. And so when we think about

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business as an active service, we're
actually thinking about it from from the standpoint

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of if I'm here to create a
business, And here I'm thinking about from

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the entrepreneurial lens. I'm thinking about
Obviously, it's got to be a sustainable

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business, so it's got to make
profit, or if it's a nonprofit,

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it's going to have enough financial flow
to be in business and serve people tomorrow.

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But that isn't why you should build
a business. So then it leads

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to the question, which is,
if I'm in the business of serving and

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whatever however I define that for my
customers and for my employees, all of

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a sudden, I can ignite a
level of passion that goes into this sense

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of service that I'm contributing to something
greater than myself. So when we think

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about everyone as we as we have
reached a level of safety, security,

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even abundance in Western iz culture,
all of a sudden we begin to look

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around and say, Okay, now, with this precious time on this planet,

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this beautiful life that I've been given
in the precious gift of life,

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what then will I do with it? What then? Well, how then

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will I serve as an entrepreneur or
from a leader at any level within the

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organization, How will I serve the
purpose at hand and the customers and what

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we're looking to solve and help help
serve for them, and whatever shape or

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form and whatever whatever the business leader
defines that to be. So when we

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put passion, we put love,
and we put love inside the business,

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all of a sudden it can then
be this act of beautiful service that people

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then feel within the organization and they
can feel it as customers as well.

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So one of the big mantras that
I have within the book, and it's

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even sort of the biggest mantra that
I use within my consulting practice, is

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there's nothing more powerful than a united
group of souls ignited in a common cause

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with love at the core. So
when you think about that sentence as an

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invitation and you break it down into
there's nothing more powerful than a united group

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of souls. When we bond together, we as human beings are better for

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it. And when we're contributing to
something larger than ourselves, which is this

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common cause that we have in hand
and businesses. I tend to call that

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a purpose, then all of a
sudden we can become this unified front that

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makes for this unignorable force, and
all of a sudden we become very attractive

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and so that's the aspect of beauty. This this thing that we human beings

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really have no defenses for, which
is the true felt sense of beauty.

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And it's unignorable in our world.
You know, if you know, if

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you have kids, the newborn face
of your baby, or even your grandchildren,

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or whatever, the feeling of a
sunset, or even in a business

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meeting where you're tapping into this sense
of connection with the team of people around

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you and the innovation that you're coming
up with on behalf of the service that

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you're providing for them. That can
enliven our heart, it can enliven our

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soul, and it can enliven our
lives and the lives of everyone surrounded with

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the business. Well, it was
beautiful. Generated I'm one hundred percent with

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everything you said, and I want
to give us take us into our first

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break, and after the break,
I want to give an example of what

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I think is a beautiful business and
seems you think so. I'm your host,

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Elise Cortez, who interview with Stephen
Morris. He's the president of Matter

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Consulting in the author of the Beautiful
Business and Actionable Manifesto to create an unignorable

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business with love at the court.
We've been talking a bit about what makes

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for a beautiful business. After the
rake, we're going to talk about evolved

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leadership and stay with us. We'll
be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is

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a management consultant specializing in meaning and
purpose and inspirational speaker and author. She

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helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among
stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning

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infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To

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learn more or to invite a lease
to speak to your organization, please visit

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her at a lease Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your

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employees working on purpose. This is
working on Purpose with Doctor Release Cortez.

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To reach our program today or open
a conversation with Elise, send an email

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to a lease Alis at Elise Cortez
dot com. Now back to working on

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Purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose.

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Before we get back into the program, I would like to invite you

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to check out my book. It's
called Purpose Ignited, How Inspiring Leaders ignite

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passion and elevate Cause. It's on
Amazon now. I wrote it to a

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Weekend readers to their passionate purpose and
helped transform them into inspiration leaders who enliven

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the workplace and elevate the contribution of
business to all its stakeholders. I use

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the content as a basis for my
Violent Inspired Leadership program and the Grab Your

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Gusto program. If you're just starting
the program today. My guest is Stephen

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Morris. He's a brand and culture
advisor, author and speaker. He works

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with business leaders to mine, articulate, and activate their driving belief system to

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create organizational integrity, evolved leaders,
connected cultures, and unignorable brands. He

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helps human centered and future ready organizations. I'm your host, Doctor Elis Cortez.

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So the example that I would like
to share with you that I think

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comprises a beautiful business so that we
can go from the conceptional for the listeners

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and viewers, the more, the
more practical and tangible. I had on

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my radio program a woman named Brittany
Meryl some years ago. She created the

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Acola Project, and I know it's
evolved since then. I'm not going to

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get all the details right, but
the gist is something like this. She

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graduated SMU, she found herself she
wanted to go to Africa and do some

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help. She goes to Africa and
she sees all this need and all these

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people that are doing such important things
just to kind of keep people together.

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She's like, I gotta I gotta
help. We gotta do something to help.

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So she finds a way to be
able to start to get the women

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to make jewelry there in Africa,
and she pays them for that so that

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they now have current, so they
have money they will wage. She brings

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that joy back to the United States. She then assembles a group of women

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who have actually been traffic She gets
them out of traffic situations. She then

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pays them a living wage to then
add in more like jewels and other fine

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sort of gems to be able to
increase the value and beauty of that jewelry.

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She then goes to Neem and Marcus
as her distribution channel and sells the

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Marcus and makes her profits. Then
uses those profits to able to come back

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to do projects back in Africa like
building schools and building damns, et cetera.

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In my mind, that is a
beautiful business. Oh all day long,

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that's good. Yeah, yes,
absolutely, I wouldn't disagree with any

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of that, And you know,
one of the things that I love about

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that particular anecdote and story is that, you know, this person saw both

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a challenge and an opportunity within it
and deployed her own version of what we

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call or what I would call business
artistry and thought about, you know,

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this precious thing that we call imagination, leaned into her own imagination and asked

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herself, well, what can I
do here? How can I serve?

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How can I help this situation,
remedy this situation, and you know,

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serve the lives of these people who
not just the people who are doing the

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work and putting the jewelry together,
but also the customers who are receiving it,

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and those people I would imagine that
receive the goods and services that are

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provided within that and if they understand
the story behind it, all of a

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sudden they have this direct connection to
the people behind the business. And all

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of a sudden, we've transcended beyond
this world of transactions and in the world

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of connection, and there's now belonging
that it's created between these two entities.

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On one end of the entity is
the organization that is creating the beautiful artifacts,

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and the other side is the receiver
of that of those entities in the

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artifacts, and how they feel about
what they're contributing to, and when they

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go out into the world and you
know, adorn themselves with the beautiful products,

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all of a sudden they become enlivened
and they're carrying that story forward.

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I think that, you know,
one of the most advanced and overlooked technologies

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that we have in our world today
and it will continue to always be the

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most advanced technology is our ability to
tell stories. We think about, like,

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what like the power of a story. No war ever started without a

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story, No no political crisis ever
started without a story, and no solution

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was ever remedied without changing that story
or remedying that story or healing the story

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that happened before. So the story
that you just told there is a blessed

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one. It's a beautiful one,
and certainly it's a beautiful business. Yeah,

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I thought you were going to say
when you said too, I thought

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you of the same mouth. But
storytelling certainly works, And this is what

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you're talking about leads just beautifully into
the next topic we wanted to get into

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the segment, and that's evolved leadership
and so one of the things I want

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to just share directly from your book
that I think just gorgeous and opens the

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space perfectly. You say, leaders
Leadership is defined more by mindset of responsibility

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than by title, role or years
of experience. Leadership sees what's possible and

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aligns them mastered or practice kits or
parts and manageable forces to make it happen.

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Evolving leaders are alchemists of possibility.
Oh that's gorgeous. Yeah, thank

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you for that, and thank you
for reading that. It's it's it's kind

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of funny to hear your words back
back to you. Yeah, that's a

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couple of nice sentences there, And
I do believe that they are alchemists or

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possibilities, or at least, you
know, one that is evolved leaders.

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When we you know, through the
story that you just told, you know,

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when an organization or leader sees an
opportunity out there, see's a possibility

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out there, we then lean into
this beautiful gift of human imagination and think

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about the most powerful, most valuable, most precious businesses on the planet.

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All began with an idea, somebody
out of a garage tinkering with the components,

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or you know, Ivanchinard at Patagonia
where he was starting to develop,

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you know, different climbing gear that
was what he called clean climbing gear.

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You think about how Hewlett Packard began, how Apple began. You know,

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these people just they began to play
with things out of their garage or ideas

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that came from their mind, and
they began to make those things happen,

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and all of a sudden, not
overnight, of course, they become some

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of the most powerful, beautiful,
amazing products and businesses on the planet.

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And I think it is this precious
gift that we have of the imagination,

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our ability to see the possibilities in
front of us, that can both create

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you know, certainly it creates some
very negative things in our world, but

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it also can create remedies and antidotes
for the things that currently ail us.

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And my invitation for those that might
be out there listening, who might have

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an entrepreneurial set of lenses that they're
thinking about, my invitation would be to

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look at a problem that you feel
you can bring solutions to and pull your

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full imaginative artistry into that set of
solutions so it can serve a greater number

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of people and remedy or heal whatever
needs to be remedied or healed. And

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I actually believe that, you know, part of the role of leader is

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actually healer, especially in corporate America
these days where you know, we were

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coming out of I believe a time
frame where we have this top down leadership,

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command and control style of leadership,
and I think in a decade from

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now, maybe sooner, that will
be out the door. People will no

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longer and maybe we're seeing in the
great resignation right now they're leaving organizations that

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you people are not welcoming their full
self to the work to work or to

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a business, and people want to
belong to something that's larger than themselves.

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And so this beautiful attribute of leadership
alchemy and even the attribute of healer as

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leader or leader as healer, begins
with healing one's self. And this is

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what I talk about when we think
about evolved leadership and those people who have

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leadership responsibility, let's just call it
that, And that could be anyone from

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you know, the CEO or of
an organization, or the middle manager of

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an organization, or a solopreneur or
an intern that it's in charge of the

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holiday party. They're all leaders within
their own domain because they've taken up or

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have been assigned with a set of
responsibilities. And this act of imagination begins

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with healing oneself and then through the
auspices of when you comment the world with

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this sense of peace and healing and
wholeness, then all of a sudden the

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world around you becomes to adapt to
that. And you know, we call

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this coregulation in the physical world space
or in the semantic space. But there's

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tons of science behind how this happens
right now. And so the role as

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leader as healer, and even the
role of leader as artist, I think

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is absolutely the way people should be. I believe thinking about what leadership responsibility

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is what a great invitation and to
take it further, because I am sure

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there are people that are going,
okay, great, great, great,

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I'm convinced, how do I become
an involved leader? And so one of

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the things that you say in the
books so beautifully is you say, evolving

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or evolved leaders have likely experienced some
sort of awakening or turning point. They

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may have been confronted with a serious
life circumstance, death, divorced, disaster,

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or some version of failure and emerge
more committed and more lucid in their

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knowing of why they are here,
what they are here to do with their

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life. Yeah, I think it
can happen that way, and I've seen

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it just as often in the other
way, where people have realized the sense

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of mastery over their world and have
achieved a level of success, And as

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David Brooks called it in his book, the Second Mountain, they've climbed the

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first mountain, which is the mountain
of success, and they've looked at the

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viewpoint from that, from that perspective
and said, is this all there is?

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And then all of a sudden one
begins to ask deeper questions about Okay,

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this can't be all there is.
And I have a sense of mastery

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and I even have a sense of
agency over my world. What next?

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What else can I raise my hand
to and how can I do what Maslow

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talked about and go into the evolution
of the hierarchy of needs where our based

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needs of safety, psychological needs are
met, our sense of belonging, and

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we have love in our life,
and all of a sudden, we've also

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gained a certain level of mastery over
what we do in our domain and the

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world that we live in and we
take our gifts and we begin to apply

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them as a gift out into the
world and a service to humanity. And

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so I think it's a very fair
question to ask yourself, based on the

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unique genius or the unique set of
skills or mastery that I have, regardless

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of what level of leadership role you
might have, how can I apply them

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for the greatest good of humanity and
the people around me? And the beautiful

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thing about beauty is it's subjective.
And the beautiful thing even about that particular

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question is it's only answerable by the
individual who's asking the question of themselves.

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But it does begin with asking or
giving yourself permission to ask that question and

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even to dream that other future opportunity
into being, which is what we call

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imagination, you know, And what
a great invitation, right. I guess

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what I would say to that Stephen
is that to further extend it and again

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bring it to a place where people
can also access it, maybe more more

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readily. Is you know, this
notion of just knowing there's so much more

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you can do than is sitting right
in front of you, if only you

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will employ your imagination, extend yourself
in lead from soul, from heart,

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and just to see what does the
world need? What can you do to

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help the world. And so what
I really appreciate about your notion of evolved

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leadership is that it is it is
the invitation for us to bring forth.

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You say something about calling the better
angels of our nature, which I know

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from your book is a reference to
Abraham Maslow's inaugural address. But Lincoln,

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excuse me, you could put that
in there and I said that wrong.

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Yeah, but that that is a
beautiful way to think about it, calling

404
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forth the better angels of our nature, right, yeah, Yeah, you

405
00:29:34.759 --> 00:29:38.279
know, I think a lot as
I began to write the book, and

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you know, it was a couple
of year journey about the times that we're

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living in. And it's worth saying
that I wrote a lot of the book,

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or at least the beginning stage of
the book came in probably twenty seventeen

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00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:56.759
twenty eighteen time frame, and then
a lot of the writing happened during COVID.

410
00:29:56.920 --> 00:30:00.640
So here we were in a world
of crisis, COVID related crisis.

411
00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.599
I think, you know, in
here in the US and I think other

412
00:30:04.599 --> 00:30:08.880
parts of the globe. I believe
that we're in a societal crisis of us

413
00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:15.279
versus them ness, and even the
crisis of the distractions that we have through

414
00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:19.960
both our work and our social media
and the way that we absorb all kinds

415
00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:26.559
of mass media. You know,
the ability to be simply present for family

416
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.920
members is a very very difficult thing
in this day and age, let alone

417
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:36.319
the ability to have conversations with people
who might not be of the same faith

418
00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:41.799
or the same political affiliation. And
what happened? What happened to our humanity?

419
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:45.519
Why why did we lose our way? And so this better better angels

420
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:52.000
our nature, I think invites us
to rise above the petty grievances that we

421
00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:55.240
have in the day in and day
out issues, and some of them are

422
00:30:55.240 --> 00:31:00.039
not petty. I understand that there
are very very significant social issue which would

423
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:07.079
include di and Jedi type of issues, inclusion, diversity, things of that

424
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:11.160
nature. They are. These are
real issues in our society, and I

425
00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:15.960
believe business leaders have the opportunity to
rise above those things and tap into their

426
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:21.240
own better angels of their nature and
deploy these acts of imagination to begin to

427
00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:26.200
heal not just themselves, their family, their work environment, and the world

428
00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:29.920
of their customers and I think this
is this is sort of the time that

429
00:31:29.960 --> 00:31:33.599
we're living in. I believe this
is the mantle and the opportunity, that

430
00:31:33.880 --> 00:31:37.400
steering wheel that all business leaders can
potentially grab the hold of and shape a

431
00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:41.640
future destiny that we're heading into.
And not the least of which which I

432
00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:48.480
should have mentioned, this is the
the global crisis of our environment, you

433
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:52.160
know it. We have to get
away from using resources as if they're only

434
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:57.079
resources that can be just destroyed and
depleted and not regained for future purposes.

435
00:31:57.400 --> 00:32:00.960
We have to think about our nat
her world around us and the beauty of

436
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:06.079
nature quite frankly, and how that
enlivens all of us from a human standpoint,

437
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:09.119
and that also taps into the better
angels of our nature. Is to

438
00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:13.799
lean into the natural world. I'm
with you, Stephen, and I will

439
00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:16.440
so help you along that journey.
So we'll together help steward the world and

440
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:20.079
bring it up. Let's go over
our last break. I'm your host,

441
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:22.039
doctor Elise Cortez, move on the
air with Stephen Morris. He's the president

442
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:27.319
of Matter Consulting in the author of
the Beautiful Business and Actionable Manifesto to create

443
00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:30.400
an unagorable business with love at the
core. We've been talking this segment about

444
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:34.720
evolved leadership, and the last segment
we're going to talk about business brand.

445
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:37.559
Stay with this, we'll be right
back. Doctor Release Cortez is a management

446
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:44.920
consultant specializing in meaning and purpose and
inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies

447
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:52.160
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and
develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures

448
00:32:52.200 --> 00:32:58.000
that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more

449
00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:00.920
or to invite a lease to speak
to your organization, please visit her at

450
00:33:00.920 --> 00:33:06.559
Elise Cortez dot com. Let's talk
about how to get your employees working on

451
00:33:06.599 --> 00:33:17.039
purpose. This is working on Purpose
with doctor Elise Cortez. To reach our

452
00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:22.759
program today or open a conversation with
Elise, send an email to Elise ali

453
00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:31.200
Se at Elise Cortez dot com.
Now back to working on purpose. Thanks

454
00:33:31.240 --> 00:33:34.720
for stating with us, and welcome
back to working on Purpose. One other

455
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:37.079
bit of news I want to share
with you is that in August of this

456
00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:39.400
year, at twenty twenty one,
I also put out my second book.

457
00:33:39.440 --> 00:33:44.160
It's an anthology this time, and
this is where I went trapsing across the

458
00:33:44.160 --> 00:33:46.559
world, and I found twenty five
women to share their intimate stories of how

459
00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:50.920
they've discovered their purpose and how they're
now serving from it. So it's incredibly

460
00:33:50.960 --> 00:33:54.680
inspirational and I'm so proud of it
I could bust. It's called Passionately Striving

461
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:58.839
and Why an anthology women who person
are mightily to live their purpose. You

462
00:33:58.839 --> 00:34:01.039
can find that. I'm as as
well. You're just joining the program today.

463
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:05.200
My guest is Stephen Morris. He's
a brand and culture advisor, author

464
00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:08.000
and speaker. He worked with business
leaders to mine, articulate, and activate

465
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:13.800
their driving belief system to create organizational
integrity, evolved leaders, connected cultures,

466
00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:16.159
and undy normal brands. I'm your
host doctor at least Cortez. So for

467
00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:20.679
this last bit here, now we
get to really come directly into your space

468
00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:23.280
even and that's the world of brand
and a few things I also want to

469
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:27.400
call back out that I think are
just gloriously beautiful about how you write.

470
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:30.800
You say a beautiful business is a
journey a way of doing business instigated by

471
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:36.360
the leaders or leadership teams awakening to
an evolved brand. In order to evolve

472
00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:39.079
toward a beautiful business, you need
to understand both the relationship between a business

473
00:34:39.079 --> 00:34:44.000
and a brand. It's my belief
that the two are inseparable. Yeah.

474
00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:47.239
Yeah, So the way I tend
to think about and talk about brand,

475
00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:52.880
and it's probably worth saying that I
tend to think about all business from a

476
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:57.400
humanistic psychology perspective. So I like
it. Yeah. One of the ways

477
00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:00.719
that I tend to describe brand,
which is I think pretty different than most

478
00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:02.360
of the other sort of brand experts
that exist out in the world, is

479
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:06.719
your brand is your is your character, and your character is your brand.

480
00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:09.320
You know, a lot of people
talk about archetypes and personas and things like

481
00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:12.719
that, and I think that's finding
good. I think, you know,

482
00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:19.079
there's a purpose for having archetypical work
that leans into the union archetypes that happen,

483
00:35:19.159 --> 00:35:22.679
and I think that that certain team
members and teams can have that.

484
00:35:22.199 --> 00:35:29.360
But the reason I think character is
more a better or more apropos way of

485
00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:34.480
describing what a brand is is it
becomes a character comes from your belief system.

486
00:35:34.519 --> 00:35:37.400
And so you know, if we
if we take business as a metaphor

487
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:40.519
and we say, I don't know, let's say Patagonia, for instance,

488
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:45.719
is an individual and we know our
friend Patagonia. Because we hang out with

489
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:50.519
Patagonia, we hang out with their
products. We understand what they believe from

490
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:54.000
protecting national resources, and you know, we understand their political activism. We

491
00:35:54.079 --> 00:35:58.480
understand how where they source their materials
and things like that. We begin to

492
00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:05.280
then understand what the character of that
entity is like. And that character comes

493
00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:09.880
from the actionable beliefs shown up every
day, day in and day out,

494
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:15.239
in all their decisions and all their
behaviors, as much as we can possibly

495
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.719
live up to them. So then
we ask ourselves where do beliefs come from

496
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:23.519
within the organizational life? So what
are how does an organization begin to form

497
00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:29.039
its beliefs about why it exists,
what it does, how it serves the

498
00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:32.119
world, how it produces its products
and or services, how it treats its

499
00:36:32.119 --> 00:36:37.519
team and thinks of that nature.
So now when that organization shows up in

500
00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:43.400
a predictable way, we then have
a sense of character. So we'll go

501
00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:45.360
back to what I was just talking
about, where do those beliefs come from?

502
00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:50.159
What are those beliefs? So it
begins from my perspective with purpose.

503
00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:55.599
Purpose is the reason that a business
exists beyond simply making money or making profit

504
00:36:55.800 --> 00:37:00.800
and I'm not an advocate. I'm
a huge advocate for making profit. It's

505
00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:04.239
a non negotiable attribute of doing business. It allows you to be in business

506
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:07.719
tomorrow and to serve more people.
And by the way, profit is the

507
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:12.159
avenue for all innovation. So the
more extra income you have, the more

508
00:37:12.159 --> 00:37:14.920
you can innovate, and the more
you can innovate, the more you can

509
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:20.559
serve your customers and your employees and
better in greater ways. But purpose is

510
00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:24.280
not just about making money. And
if your business is only in business for

511
00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:29.360
the purpose of making money and or
profit, you are likely going to be

512
00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:34.039
exposed for that at some point,
and you're likely have decisions that lead you

513
00:37:34.119 --> 00:37:37.920
down some pretty dark galeries. So
I believe organizations will look very closely what

514
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:44.039
we do corporate soul searching, and
ask themselves the question, why beyond profit

515
00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:46.840
are we here, what are we
looking to accomplish? That it's a big,

516
00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:51.280
hairy, audacious goal that is going
to change the world, or at

517
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:54.000
least the world of our customers and
ideally the world of our employees. So

518
00:37:54.039 --> 00:37:58.800
it begins with purpose, then it
goes into vision. The connected part of

519
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:04.119
vision is an extension of purpose,
which is how does the world begin to

520
00:38:04.239 --> 00:38:07.960
look like as we go about achieving
our purpose. If it's a purpose,

521
00:38:07.159 --> 00:38:10.280
it's got to be big enough that
it's never really done because it's always more

522
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:15.320
people to serve. And then this
vision is how the world begins to look

523
00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:20.119
like. So we can have different
measurement systems within that, and we can

524
00:38:20.119 --> 00:38:23.440
have different markers over different periods of
time. I love working with organizations that

525
00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:30.760
have audacious purposes, excuse me,
audacious visions. Purposes and visions like a

526
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:36.920
hundred year vision. So it might
feel incredibly audacious for some organizations to set

527
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:40.199
out in a hundred years from now, our vision for our business and the

528
00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:44.199
world around us. The world that
we're affecting is going to look like this.

529
00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:46.760
And I work with three businesses right
now that have been a business for

530
00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:51.800
more than seventy five years, and
I'm happy to say that I've helped them

531
00:38:52.039 --> 00:38:55.360
a couple of them shape future visions
that go out just as far as they've

532
00:38:55.400 --> 00:38:59.480
been in business. But you can
be a startup and still have a hundred

533
00:38:59.480 --> 00:39:04.199
your vision. It's totally okay to
do that. So purpose and then vision,

534
00:39:04.599 --> 00:39:09.920
and then core values are the operating
system to a culture. So the

535
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:15.960
core values define what our belief systems
are in action, they define how we

536
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.559
hold each other accountable, for communication, for how we treat one another,

537
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:22.920
how we serve people, and it
becomes the operating system because it's not just

538
00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:28.280
a set of stated values that sit
on some conference room wall, but they

539
00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:30.639
have to be lived. And there's
a lot of different ways that you can

540
00:39:30.679 --> 00:39:36.000
cultivate core values. One of the
ways that I love doing it with organizations

541
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:39.440
is to ask them to tell me
the stories of their people at their best

542
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:45.679
that we would like to exemplify going
forward. And typically there's heroic stories that

543
00:39:45.719 --> 00:39:49.920
exist within organizations that we can identify
and say, oh, this story,

544
00:39:50.039 --> 00:39:52.199
this story, and this story are
the kinds of stories that we want to

545
00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:57.119
be telling a hundred years from now. What are the attributes that went into

546
00:39:57.199 --> 00:40:01.519
the character that created those stories that
we can deconstruct and say, these are

547
00:40:01.559 --> 00:40:05.480
the things that we want to cheerlead, These are the things that we want

548
00:40:05.519 --> 00:40:08.639
to celebrate within our team and with
our culture. And then be able to

549
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:12.360
the other thing that I love doing. And this is sort of a tip

550
00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:15.239
for anyone out there if you're thinking
about how do you activate core values,

551
00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:19.960
is you can turn them into questions. So, you know, if you

552
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:22.440
have a core value that has to
do with I don't know, let's say

553
00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:27.159
innovation at some level, you could
ask you you could you could reshape that

554
00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:30.880
core value question or a core value
statement into a question that says, are

555
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:35.280
we being innovative enough? Or what
does innovation look like in this moment?

556
00:40:35.360 --> 00:40:38.679
So in that particular scenario, we
could say innovation looks like a spirited,

557
00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:44.159
open minded, curious conversation. In
a business meeting, it could look like

558
00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:49.440
serving customers in a very different way
by getting innovative about how do we solve

559
00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:53.039
the problem that they're coming to us
with In a customer service situation, could

560
00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:57.159
it could look like how do we
get innovative in terms of how do we

561
00:40:57.239 --> 00:41:01.400
on board new team members or interview
new team members? And so these questions

562
00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:07.480
should help people make decisions throughout the
organization. But they're all connected to the

563
00:41:07.480 --> 00:41:12.159
core values and the behavior system that
we want to see consistently modeled. And

564
00:41:12.199 --> 00:41:15.880
again this goes back to character.
So character is connected to the core values,

565
00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:20.400
which is connected to the purpose.
And then the last attribute, which

566
00:41:20.400 --> 00:41:24.400
I think is really important to talk
about, is the stated promise. In

567
00:41:24.440 --> 00:41:30.480
the world of business, there could
be multiple promises. Typically there's two promises

568
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:34.280
that an organization can make. One
is an external promise to a set of

569
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:38.280
customers, and a valuable promise is
broken down into three different levels, one

570
00:41:38.280 --> 00:41:44.519
of which is is it explicitly stated? Are we actually stating the promise because

571
00:41:44.519 --> 00:41:46.920
it's not a promise, I don't
actually say it out loud. Secondarily,

572
00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.079
it's got to be valuable for the
customers, so there's going to be something

573
00:41:51.159 --> 00:41:53.559
in it for them. And thirdly, I believe there has to be some

574
00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:58.760
accountability, some way to measure to
the extent that we're living up to the

575
00:41:58.800 --> 00:42:01.559
promises that we're stating to people.
So that's the external promise, but there

576
00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:07.480
could also be internal promises, promises
that we make to one another within the

577
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:12.039
organization, and I believe those things
should have also the same three attributes,

578
00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:15.519
which has to do with we have
to explicitly state it. It's got to

579
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:19.840
be valuable for the people, and
we have to hold ourselves accountable for living

580
00:42:19.920 --> 00:42:22.920
up to it, so we measure
it there. We're so much in that

581
00:42:23.239 --> 00:42:28.320
I want to acknowledge you for using
a very important four letter word and that

582
00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:30.559
soul. Remember we talked about that
so I appreciate very much that you just

583
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:35.480
wow that right, and they're so
beautifully Stephen. And then if we could

584
00:42:35.559 --> 00:42:37.360
go on here, and we're coming
to the close of the show here,

585
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:40.480
I want to just let you talk
a little bit to the invitation you've given

586
00:42:40.559 --> 00:42:45.159
us and that you say, you
say your invitation is, my friends,

587
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:49.719
this book and implications for the beautiful
business within it is an invitation for a

588
00:42:49.840 --> 00:42:53.880
reclamation. What reclamation? Yeah,
I think the and I'm about to pen

589
00:42:53.960 --> 00:42:58.840
an article on this, I think
you and the title of the article will

590
00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:01.159
likely be something along the line to
the death of corporate America. And I

591
00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:07.559
think you know it's time to reclaim
business as a dirty word. I think

592
00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:14.039
you know the societal perspective that most
people have on large institutions, including very

593
00:43:14.079 --> 00:43:20.760
big businesses and government and things like
that. Our skepticism for big business has

594
00:43:20.840 --> 00:43:25.719
dwindled, mostly because of the nefarious
behavior of certain organizations over time. And

595
00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:30.840
I think it's time for reclaiming what
a beautiful business, for what business can

596
00:43:30.840 --> 00:43:36.679
actually be for our sense of humanity, and reclaim that in action, and

597
00:43:36.719 --> 00:43:39.719
I believe in doing so, it
will begin to reshape our society. It

598
00:43:39.760 --> 00:43:47.400
will begin to reshape the social social
justice and elements of equity and diversity within

599
00:43:47.679 --> 00:43:52.039
not just our society, but in
our workforces. And I think it will

600
00:43:52.079 --> 00:43:57.000
begin to also reclaim our relationship with
our natural resources in the environment. And

601
00:43:57.039 --> 00:44:00.920
I believe a beautiful business needs to
operate on all those cylinders and with all

602
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:05.360
of this deserves a reclamation, All
of this deserves redefining. And by the

603
00:44:05.360 --> 00:44:08.280
way, folks, this has happened
over time. You know, capitalism is

604
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:14.199
a relatively new invention of human beings. So it is then up to us

605
00:44:14.239 --> 00:44:20.280
to reinvent, or reshape, or
reclaim what a culture, what a society

606
00:44:20.320 --> 00:44:24.400
can look like based on our previous
form of capitalism. And that can change.

607
00:44:24.480 --> 00:44:28.079
It's can certainly change, but it's
really up to us. It's up

608
00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:31.599
to the people of our generation to
step up and serve that mantle, to

609
00:44:31.719 --> 00:44:36.639
understand that this is our responsibility andes
top looking around at other people around us

610
00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:38.079
and saying, oh, when are
they going to fix it? By the

611
00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:42.920
way, folks, they is us
when we think about the world out there

612
00:44:42.960 --> 00:44:45.920
and we blame them for whatever our
plight is. We're part of that.

613
00:44:46.320 --> 00:44:51.960
And so especially people who have a
business leadership role, they are us,

614
00:44:52.239 --> 00:44:54.599
and so now it's the time to
reclaim all that and to write the ship

615
00:44:54.920 --> 00:44:59.079
sounds good to me, Stephen,
I'm in let's do it together. I

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00:44:59.079 --> 00:45:00.320
want to thank you so watch for
being a guest in my show, for

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00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:04.000
being findable. When I reached out
to I said, you absolutely simply must

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00:45:04.039 --> 00:45:05.960
come on the Working in Purpose show, and you said, okay, I'll

619
00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:07.559
do it. So thank you for
saying yes, for dancing with me,

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00:45:07.639 --> 00:45:10.199
for sharing your beautiful message. Steven, I'm so happy to know you.

621
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:15.159
It's my pleasure. This has been
a great conversation, and at least the

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00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:19.760
work that you're doing in the world
is just incredibly beautiful. I applaud everything

623
00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:22.960
that you're doing, and we are
comrades and arms, were in the same

624
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:28.159
boat together, and I'm cheering you
on for everything that you're doing and no

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00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:30.800
doubt everything that your show and your
work stands for. Thank you, Stephen.

626
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:34.760
I really appreciate that we are comrades
and arms, and I'm happy to

627
00:45:35.039 --> 00:45:37.159
be in your company, to be
in service with you. So listeners and

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00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:40.039
viewers, if you want to learn
more about Stephen and the work that he's

629
00:45:40.039 --> 00:45:44.880
doing or his book, the best
place to start is his website it's Matterco

630
00:45:45.159 --> 00:45:49.840
dot ceo. So it's m A
T t e r Co dot c O.

631
00:45:50.199 --> 00:45:52.079
Last week, if you missed the
live show, you always catch it

632
00:45:52.119 --> 00:45:54.719
recorded podcast. We are on there
with Nikola chen Nielsen, who is the

633
00:45:54.719 --> 00:45:59.760
co author of Return on Ambition,
a Radical Approach to your achievement, growth,

634
00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:01.280
and well Being. We talked about
what we can learn about our own

635
00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:05.239
ambition and how we can oftenly manage
it, the value of listening to the

636
00:46:05.320 --> 00:46:07.960
voice of the employee, and creating
work environments where ambitious people actually thrive.

637
00:46:08.199 --> 00:46:12.159
Next week, we'll be on the
air with Greg Melanoc, author of Curing

638
00:46:12.199 --> 00:46:16.320
Corporate Short Term short TERSM Terminism is
a hard word to say future growth versus

639
00:46:16.360 --> 00:46:21.079
current earnings. We'll be talking about
hit this idea as a basis for creating

640
00:46:21.119 --> 00:46:23.840
sustainable value that benefits all stakeholders.
See you there, Remember that works at

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00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:29.360
least a third of our lives and
let's work on Purpose. We hope you've

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00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:34.199
enjoyed this week's program. Be sure
to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your

643
00:46:34.239 --> 00:46:37.840
host, doctor Elise Cortez, each
week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel.

644
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:45.679
Together, we'll create a world where
business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires impassioned performance,

645
00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:51.000
and employees are fulfilled in work that
provides the meaning and purpose. They

646
00:46:51.119 --> 00:46:53.800
crave see you there. Let's work
on purpose.