I’ve noticed something in boardrooms, coaching sessions, and leadership circles I spend time in.
Most leaders I work with aren’t struggling with strategy or skill – they hit a point where they’re struggling with meaning.
There’s a hum of activity, and good outcomes to observe, but the energy feels off – as if something essential has slipped just out of view.
Purpose. That’s what’s missing.
It’s such a quiet rebellion, most leaders never name it – but I guarantee their teams feel it every day.
Why Purpose Actually Matters (Beyond the Buzzword)
For too long, “purpose” has been overused in mission statements, lines on a website, or slides in the culture deck.
But purpose isn’t a slogan. It’s the heartbeat of a healthy organisation – and the emotional contract between leaders and their people.
Doubtful? Research in organisational psychology consistently shows that when people experience their work as meaningful, they perform better, innovate more, and stay longer.
A 2021 study in Frontiers in Psychology defined organisational purpose as an organisation’s reason for being, built around five elements: significance, aspiration, direction, unification, and motivation. Those are the same ingredients that drive fulfilment and performance.
Notice profit doesn’t make it onto this list.
Leaders who tether decisions to purpose create clarity where confusion usually breeds.
They create commitment where compliance can often live.
They build trust — and trust compounds.
Purpose, Not Posturing
Let’s be honest: corporate “purpose” has an image problem.
Too often, it’s rolled out as messaging that never reaches meaning.
The poster version is why purpose needs some reputational rehab.
“Purpose washing” creates cynicism faster than any failed strategy could.
Real purpose is active and felt.
It shows up in how leaders behave, not what they say.
It’s the difference between managing tasks and mobilising belief.
The Inner Work Behind Outer Leadership
I’m lucky enough to know Kiko Kislansky, author of The Purpose Revolution.
When he shared his manuscript I was drawn to the description of purpose as “meaning in motion.”
He identifies seven interlocking elements – talents, values, passions, vision, message, legacy, and practices – and says misalignment in even one destabilises the whole.
For leaders, that framework is gold.
Because if you want your organisation to operate from purpose, you have to first lead from it.
Before you talk culture, check your compass for congruence.
Before you realign a team, align yourself to those things that matter most.
That inner clarity isn’t indulgent.
It’s foundational.
Teams can feel when their leader is anchored – and when purpose is a postscript.
The Leadership Shift: From Function to Meaning
Harvard Business Review calls it Purposeful Leadership: a shift from controlling outcomes to cultivating significance.
Leaders who link individual purpose to collective impact see employee engagement rise by up to 56% and turnover drop dramatically (McKinsey, 2023).
Of course, most org charts are designed for efficiency, not meaning.
But when you redesign around purpose, you move from role-based to contribution-based leadership.
Leading with purpose sees you stop asking “What do you do?” and start asking “What difference does it make?”
Purpose isn’t fluffy. It’s strategic.
It’s the driver that keeps people moving when the path gets foggy – and the lens that keeps decisions coherent when the world changes again.
As it always will.
How to Lead With Purpose (Without Sounding Like a TED Talk)
Start with resonance, not rhetoric.
Before you articulate purpose to your team, locate your own.
What genuinely lights you up?
What irritates you because you care so much?
That friction is data.
Turn values into verbs.
“Integrity” or “innovation” on a wall doesn’t change behaviour.
But “give feedback fast and make it clear and kind” does.
Define what your values look like in action.
Then hold yourself accountable to living into them.
Create psychological safety.
Google’s Project Aristotle found it’s the single biggest predictor of team performance.
People will only express purpose when it’s safe to bring their whole selves to work.
People need to be noticed, valued, and energised by what they do.
Make meaning measurable.
Purpose can (and should) connect to metrics.
Tie projects and progress back to purpose-related outcomes – not just quarterly numbers or deliverables and deadlines.
Just check the purpose is resonant not imposed.
Lead the story.
Every decision tells a story about what matters.
Use meetings, recognition moments, even mistakes as proof points for your purposeful practice.
That’s success, redefined.
The Cost of Leading Without Purpose
It’s worth knowing the absence of purpose doesn’t look like chaos – it looks more like quiet disengagement.
It’s when good people stop caring – then stay anyway.
When performance plateaus not because of skill, but because energy has leaked out through disconnection.
Leading without purpose erodes trust, clarity, and courage – the three currencies every modern leader trades in.
If that description resonates – even a little – it’s time to redesign your next chapter with clarity.
The Invitation
Purpose-led leadership isn’t a soft power move.
It’s the most future-focused and human-led one you can make.
When leaders are anchored in purpose, they give everyone else permission to care.
And that’s when performance turns magnetic.
So here’s your prompt:
→ What would change if you led from alignment, not obligation?
→ What might unlock if your purpose and your leadership finally moved in the same direction?
Final Thought
Remember leading with purpose isn’t about grand gestures.
It’s about micro-alignments – one decision, one conversation, one redesigned role, one person at a time.
It’s how meaning translates into momentum.
And how leadership becomes legacy.
Work With Me
Coaching-infused, psychology-led leadership development for people-first organisations.
I help leaders and teams redesign leadership so it feels like theirs again – purposeful, not performative.
These aren’t traditional training programmes.
They’re practical, coaching-infused, psychology-led experiences that solve real problems HR, L&D and People Leaders already know they have – but haven’t seen solved this way before.
Explore:
Agility in Action — for teams navigating change, reorgs or transformation
Grow With — for rising leaders and “leaders-in-waiting.”
Rethinking Offboarding — compassionate exits and purposeful career redesigns.
