Unit 7 The Role of Purpose in Leadership
Overview
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In this unit, we continue our exploration of the question, How do I live out what I believe? by examining our purpose and empowering others.
We are all created for purpose—and understanding our purpose drives our passion and gives us the energy we need to keep going, even when things are tough. Living out our purpose can also inspire others to join us. You will have an opportunity to start developing your own leadership purpose statement.
Leadership is not done in isolation. We are designed to be in relationship with others. We need others. Authentic leaders can motivate and mobilize others by empowering them to do their jobs well and reach their goals and aspirations. Trusting relationships built on mutual respect are the foundation for empowerment. This unit presents strategies for creating an environment of trust and equipping and mobilizing others. As you read through the material, you are encouraged to reflect on a time you felt particularly empowered.
As the course content begins to converge you will start making connections with concepts presented throughout the course. Later in the unit, you will have the opportunity to apply some of these concepts by preparing a presentation that will analyze various aspects of leadership during a crisis.
Let’s get started!
Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:
- Examine your own purpose
- Examine the relational conditions required to create an environment of empowerment
- Analyze aspects of leadership in crisis
- Explain how leaders can motivate and mobilize others through empowerment
Activity Checklist
Here is a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.
Learning Activities
- Unit Readings and Reflections (90 minutes)
- Read True North, Chapter 9.
- Read article, From Purpose to Impact
- Respond to the reflection questions in your learning journal
- Read True North, Chapter 9.
- Your Leadership Purpose Statement (45 minutes)
- Follow the steps to develop your own leadership purpose statement
- Follow the steps to develop your own leadership purpose statement
- Unit Readings and Reflections (45 minutes)
- Read True North, Chapter 10.
- Respond to the reflection questions in your learning journal.
- Read True North, Chapter 10.
Assessment
In this course you demonstrate your understanding of the course learning outcomes in various ways. Please see the Assessment section in Moodle for assignment details and due dates.
7.1 Discovering Your Purpose
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“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
– Mark Twain
We are all created for purpose. One of the most important discoveries in your leadership journey is discovering your purpose. Having a firm understanding of our purpose drives our passion and gives us the energy we need to keep going, even when things are tough. Our passion attracts people to us, and inspires them to do their best. Your leadership purpose is the unique gift that you bring to the world. When people find and follow their purpose, they know their life has a point.
In Unit 4 you identified your core values and established some of the principles you intend to live and lead by. Finding your purpose means finding a way to use your values and principles to make a difference in the world in a way that fulfills and satisfies you. Your purpose will point the way and clarify your priorities.
Think back to your reflections about the key messages from Simon Sinek’s talk How Great Leaders Inspire Action. He postulates that our why is what drives us to take action on the things that matter most to us. The challenge is… sometimes people don’t know what matters most or what their purpose in life is. For most of us this evolves throughout our lifetime.
Most leaders find that the purpose of their leadership comes from their life story. George (2015) suggests that “By understanding the meaning of key events in your life and reframing them, you can determine your leadership purpose” (p. 204).
Once you understand your purpose, you’ll be able to clearly articulate what makes you feel fulfilled and better understand what drives your behaviour when you’re at your natural best (Sinek, 2017). When you can do that, you’ll have a point of reference for everything you do going forward and will be able to inspire others to follow your lead!
References:
- George, B. (2015). Discover your true north. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Sinek, S. (2017). Find Your Why. Portfolio Penguin.
Activity: Unit Readings and Reflections
- Read True North, Chapter 9.
- Read From Purpose to Impact, Harvard Business Review, May 2014
You can also search for this article on the TWU Library website.
Respond to the reflection questions in your learning journal:
- What have you discovered about purpose?
- What have you discovered is motivating you to lead?
- In what ways do your passions lead you to the purpose of your leadership?
- How are you communicating differently as a result of what you’ve been learning?
Activity: Your Leadership Purpose Statement
Finding your leadership purpose is not easy and it may take years to truly discover your unique purpose. This activity can help put you on the path to discovering your purpose (adapted from From Purpose to Impact).
Step 1
Think about your life story for common threads and major themes. You might find it helpful to review your learning journal notes from Units 1 and 4. The point is to identify your core, lifelong strengths, values, and passions—those pursuits that energize you and bring you joy. Here are some prompts that might be effective:
- What did you especially love doing when you were a child, before the world told you what you should or shouldn’t like or do? Describe a moment and how it made you feel.
- Think about one or two of the crucibles you noted in your chronological record and your Unit 2 assignment (Summary and Personal Reflection). How did these challenges shape you?
- What do you enjoy doing in your life now that helps you sing your song?
Step 2
Try crafting a clear, concise, and declarative statement of purpose using some of the words you wrote down in Step 1. You might find this starter template helpful:
My leadership purpose is to ___________________ so that ___________________.
Note that these learning activities are ungraded, but is designed to help you succeed in your assessments in this course.
7.2 Empowering Others
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In Unit 5, we introduced the concepts of motivation and mobilization. One of the key aspects of mobilizing others is empowering them to do their jobs well and reach their goals and aspirations. Empowering others gives them the confidence they need to prosper, and is key to developing future leaders, building healthy cultures, and achieving long-term results.
Trusting relationships built on mutual respect are the foundation for empowerment. Empowering leaders gain the respect of their colleagues by:
- Treating others as equals rather than using power over them
- Listening actively and taking genuine interest in others
- Learning from people and asking for their ideas and advice
- Sharing life stories to make genuine connections and getting to know others on a deeper, more personal level
- Aligning others around the mission of the organization or project
Empowering others is not about telling them what to do and how to it. Rather, empowerment gives others the freedom and responsibility to do their job, trusting that they are capable and giving them the chance to prove themselves. In doing so, we help others flourish, prosper, and grow.
The following strategies can help build a culture of trust and empowerment, and equip and mobilize others to do their best work:
- Share information.
- Create clear goals and objectives.
- Create a safe environment where the team knows it’s ok to make a mistake. Treating mistakes and failures as learning opportunities helps everyone grow.
- Support a learning environment by creating opportunities to analyze successes and failures.
Creating a culture of empowerment increases satisfaction, productivity, and morale.
Activity: Unit Readings and Reflections
- Read True North, Chapter 10 and Chapter 12.
Think about a time when you felt particularly empowered, perhaps even during a crisis, and respond to the questions in your learning journal:
- What made you feel empowered?
- What was the impact or result of you feeling empowered? Were you better able to achieve your goals?
- In what ways did you feel supported?
- What would a “safe environment” look like to you?
- How might you empower others?
Unit Summary
In this unit, you learned that having a firm understanding of our purpose drives our passion and gives us the energy we need to keep going, even when things are tough. Finding your purpose means finding a way to use your values and principles to make a difference in the world. You had an opportunity to start developing your own leadership purpose statement. This will continue to evolve throughout your leadership journey.
When we understand our purpose and can clearly articulate what makes us feel fulfilled, we have a reference point for everything we do and are better able to inspire others to follow our lead!
Authentic leaders mobilize others by empowering them around a common purpose and values. They encourage others by giving them the freedom and responsibility to do their job and trust that they are capable. You learned about strategies that empowering leaders use to build a culture of trust and had an opportunity to reflect on times you have felt empowered.
In Unit 8, we will bring together everything we’ve learned throughout the course, focusing on the knowing (heart), doing (hands), and being (heart) of leadership. We will conclude by developing our own leadership metaphors.
Checking your Learning
Before you move on to the next unit, you may want to check to make sure that you are able to:
- Articulate your own purpose
- Describe the relational conditions required to create an environment of empowerment
- Explain how leaders can motivate and mobilize others through empowerment
- Analyze aspects of leadership in crisis