Two Harvard professors argue that leadership is often discussed only in terms of economic performance rather than purpose. This narrow focus misses leadership's ability to forge meaning and purpose for an organization. While economic results are important, leaders should also focus on intentionally creating an understanding of the organization's meaningful purpose beyond money. Doing so allows leaders to tap into employees' needs to feel valued and valuable through aligning their values with the organization's goals and ideals.

1. Impactful Leadership – The Focus on Money and Meaning
Rakesh Khurana, Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School, and fellow professor Joel Podolny have stated that, because most contemporary organizational researchers talk about leadership only in terms of its impact on economic performance rather than its ability to give the organization a sense of purpose, something crucial has been lost.
This focus on economic results, they say, gives a one-sided picture of what leaders are actually able to accomplish. The effectiveness of organizational leadership should also explore their ability to forge new or renewed meaning and purpose for the organization and its employees.
There’s no hidden inference here that a leader should take their focus away from bottom-line results (either profit orientated in the private sector or delivering services on time and on budget in the public and not-for-profit sectors). What is being suggested is this: if leaders don’t take the time to intentionally create an understanding of the meaningful purpose of the organization (beyond the monetary elements stated above) they miss out on the enormous potential of such a focus.
Values and meaning
For most of us, after our basic needs are satisfied, there are a couple of others, which lend themselves to our sense of leading a meaningful life. These are our need to feel both valued and valuable.

2. In organizational terms how these needs begin to be met is by us experiencing alignment between our
own values and ideals and those of the organization. That is, we understand how our work is
contributing to the goals and ideals we value. The second way these needs begin to be met is through
the quality of social interaction we have with others who share in the organization’s vision, goals and
rewards.
Therefore, another essential element of leadership, in addition to the bottom-line focus, is to create an
organizational context where individuals feel creatively empowered through connection with what’s
meaningful to them. A context where organizational culture, processes and systems enable its
members to behave in a way that actively supports not only ownership of the organization’s vision but
creates an authentic sense of responsibility in making that vision a reality.
Great picture, but how does a leader create a perceptual framework, which allows them to begin to
create such an organizational context?
Well let’s fuel this picture with another.
Individual Values and Beliefs
•Personal Values
•Leadership Style
•Individual Drivers
and Worldviews
•Skills and Knowledge
Individual Actions and
Behaviours
• Personal Behaviours
•Leadership Behaviours
•Organisational Role (Authority)
•Modes of Decision-Making
Group Values
and Beliefs
•Group Culture
• Shared Vision
• Organisational Values
• Organisational Beliefs
• Group Drivers & Worldview
Group Actions
and Behaviours
•Strategies
•Policies
•Processes
•Systems
•Performance Measures
•The Brand
Values Behaviours
Collective Individual
Structural
Alignment
Vision & Values
Alignment
Mission Alignment
Personal Alignment
Sustainability
Source: Ruth Garrett 2010
This diagram is based on the work of author and researcher Ken Wilber who argues that values and
beliefs are the hidden drivers of human behaviour.

3. In Wilber’s four quadrant model of the human system we see how individual (upper left quadrant) and organizational beliefs and values (lower left quadrant) drive individual (upper right quadrant) and organizational behaviour (lower right quadrant). It’s only through aligning all the facets of the human system that individual empowerment and flexible and fluid sustainable growth takes place.
• To have personal alignment there must be alignment between personal values (upper left quadrant) and personal behaviours (upper right quadrant).
• To have the effective execution of organizational vision and values there must be alignment of personal (upper left quadrant) and organizational cultural vision and values (lower left quadrant).
• To have alignment of how the vision of the organization is carried out, i.e. the mission, there must be congruence between the behaviours of the individual (upper right quadrant) and the systemic behaviour of the organization (lower right quadrant).
• To have structural congruence there must be an alignment of the espoused cultural values of the organization(lower left quadrant) and the strategic policies, procedures and systems (lower right quadrant).
Underpinning this alignment there is a need for a leader to be willing to:
1. Maintain organizational values even when there is some perceived economic cost to doing so. As Khurana and Podolny point out if espoused organizational values are violated when there’s a perceived benefit, it will erode organizational culture through suspicion, derision and cynicism.
2. Ensure (through design and blended learning) that the individuals within the organization get a clear sense of the fit between what they do and who they believe themselves to be
3. Commitment of their time and organizational resources to ensuring that each member of the organizations understands how what they do links to the purpose of the organization.
4. Ensures that recruitment and retention policies are congruent with hiring individuals who will gain personal meaning from organizational values and purpose.
Bibliography Khurana R., Podolny J., Legace M. (2005), How to Put Meaning Back into Leading, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4563.html accessed October 2010

4. Ruth Garrett MSc. PhD
For the past 20 years, Ruth has been a facilitator, coach and mentor of individual and organizational transition and change.
She works with a wide range of organizational clients in the corporate, retail, manufacturing, public and education sectors assisting them in realizing their highest levels of growth.
Ruth also works with a variety of individual clients assisting them in getting from where they are to where they want to be.
Contact details:
Web: www.manifestingyourabundance.com
www.integralcoachingandmediation.com
Email: ruth@manifestingyourabundance.com
integralcoaching@sympatico.ca
Cell: 705-441-6581