The Knowledgebase

Inspiration

Shared understanding

Bringing purpose to life

Leadership

A purpose-led business has leaders who challenge themselves to behave in a way that enables others to do their best work and thrive.

Employees take their lead about appropriate conduct from those in supervisory roles. Whether employees believe that their leaders really care about purpose or just profits matters hugely. And leaders play a crucial role both through structures of governance and oversight and in the way they act to support the desired behaviour in others. This includes supporting managers at all levels and requiring effective accountability both from themselves as well as others.

However, whilst leaders can help set the tone and create the conditions for a purpose-led culture, it is also important to be clear about the limitations of the role leaders can play in influencing corporate culture. This insight from Simon Western is relevant here:

When leaders attempt to change organisational culture as if it is an object that can be manipulated by their expertise, this is highly problematic because (a) culture is not a ‘thing’ to be changed, and (b) because there are no outsiders — leaders are part of the culture, they are not external change agents engineering or fixing culture from the outside….To transmit culture skilfully is to try to understand the dominant cultures that are at play in an organisation, the purpose these cultures serve, the resistances they create, and the amount of collaborative and creative energy they enable. Transmitting the best aspects of these cultures is a nuanced and collective task, that a leader can support and engage with rather than control.

Rethinking leadership and organisational culture, Medium, 2 March 2021

Creating the environment for people to thrive

Clarity of purpose coupled with competent people is a big part of this.

This short animate [9 minute watch] discusses this in a fun and engaging way:

If you start to think about what our role is as leaders, it’s actually quite simple,” Chris Toth, CEO of the medical device company Varian, told us. “Our role is not to be the ones who make the decision or to be the smartest person in the room. In fact, it can be exceptionally dangerous if the decision-making always goes to the leader. Instead, you must create a culture of compassion and empowerment that is accepting of diverse perspectives. This unlocks people’s creativity, productivity and happiness.

Becoming a More Humane Leader,  Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter

Example:

This video of a discussion with the CEO of WD40, Garry Ridge, discusses how leaders can help create the conditions for a purpose led culture (25 minute watch)