From the course: Human-Centered Leadership

Leading with purpose

From the course: Human-Centered Leadership

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Leading with purpose

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- In our research we discovered inside environments where leaders are connected to their purpose and employees feel grounded in their mission, organizations experience better meaning and inspiration formation as a whole. We also found the contrary to be true. Where leaders are not connected to their purpose and employees are unclear about their mission, there is a greater sense of lacking. So what is purpose? A purpose is a cause or a belief as to why we exist in the first place. So how do we develop our purpose as leaders? There are three activities we can invest in. The first one is understanding our life mission. So this is obviously difficult, but there are a number of questions that you can ask yourself. What does success look like for you beyond the simple paycheck? What does a great rewarding day look like and feel like? If you were to ask others about your impact, what would they say about it? And what would you want your legacy to be at the end of your life? The second one is bridging our purpose with our role in the organization's greater mission to inspire others. So an example of this would be, let's say you have a purpose of building community, and your role is in talent acquisition. You could actually marry that with the organization's mission to say we are here to build the next generation of leaders. The last one is communicating, communicating often and as clearly as possible. A lot of people leaders think once they communicate the why of something their job is done. Fortunately, people would actually like to hear it more regularly, and saying things like, "Because I said so," or, "It's part of our job," is not a good reason for people to latch on to. So give them a heartfelt purpose because that can not only provide alignment for your team members, but also inspire energy in others' hearts.

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