Yearning for Leadership Purpose

Throughout my years coaching leaders, purpose has been a constant thread.

Leaders, like you, are looking to have greater impact through meaning and purpose in your work. Clarifying and articulating your purpose, your calling or your why seems elusive. It often feels difficult to identify on your own. While yearning to know what it is, sometimes you are just too close to yourself and are blind to the impact you are having, blind to the one thing that you do better than 10,000 other people.

Knowing and claiming your purpose, core values and strengths — the foundation of the Sustainable Leadership model that I developed and use throughout all of my coaching. I believe it’s the fundamental nucleus to a sustainable, fulfilled, flourishing life. Equipped with your nucleus, you can be certain of achieving what you aspire to accomplish.

This is part 1 in the 5-part series on Leadership Purpose by Diana Gabriel, Certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

The search for authenticity in those who lead us has never been more pressing. Click To Tweet

Let me ask you this: Have you identified your leadership purpose, and are you expressing it in the actions you take and how you show up? Don’t worry if you haven’t, only about 20% of leaders say they have. And many more long to know their purpose.

As a leader, if you want to drive a high-performance organization, you must find ways to make employee performance meaningful. Sadly, many executive teams focus on numbers instead of words when trying to motivate people to achieve more. Carrots and sticks may work in some situations, but leaders like you must engage hearts and minds through connecting to meaning and purpose to truly excite people to give their all.

Great leaders have a profound impact on their communities, families and key societal realms (e.g. sports, politics). Nowhere is good leadership more important than at work, where you devote considerable time and energy.

“Great leadership has the potential to excite people to extraordinary levels of achievement. But it is not only about performance; it is also about meaning.”
— Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones, Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? (Harvard Business Review Press, 2006)

From what I see when I am coaching leaders in organizations, there is a deepening disenchantment with traditional-style management. People are increasingly suspicious of the skilled and charismatic boss who echoes corporate jargon and mission statements. The search for authenticity in those who lead us has never been more pressing.

While concepts such as quiet leadership and servant leaders are popular in business bestsellers, leaders and corporations have been slow to change selection criteria. Leadership continues to be about results. Organizations are not immune to the lure of the heroic CEO.

Great results are not achieved by inspirational leadership alone. Employees choose to come to work and give their best, or not. Employees choose to be engaged, or not. Leaders who are self-aware know their core values, their strengths and their purpose. They excel at capturing hearts, minds and souls providing purpose, meaning, and motivation.

Of course, the bigger question for most of you is, “how do I do that?” In this series we’ll explore leadership purpose, how you can find meaning and articulate your purpose.

Have you identified your leadership purpose and are you expressing it in the actions you take and how you show up and? You can reach me here and on LinkedIn.