Perhaps a more telling question would be "What is purposeless leadership?"

"Purposeful leadership" sounds like a clear tautology to me. Perhaps "purposeful management" could be more usefully discussed, as we all know it's possible to manage like crazy with no purpose what so ever.

This blog piece came out at a good time for us - we've just come to the end of a mission/vision/values/purpose piece of work that as an organisation has led to all of us inputting and agreeing on who we are and what we aspire to be.

Of course now the difficulty is getting there ;)

Purpose wise, we're all in agreement that we're here to make a difference in peoples lives - we help people to change their lives for the better. And that's what we do as a company. But it's highlighted that we all feel very passionately about making a different beyond our work and we're now in the throes of using that desire to make changes societally and culturally to actually *do* it. Some of it is, of course, internal - we're looking at gender pay gap reporting, for example, even though we're not obliged to because we recognise that on one level it can directly affect people within our business, and on another level it can send ripples in society that effect change elsewhere. We're also looking at CSR opportunities that help local communities. When in a recent R&R meeting one idea was that potential bonus money was diverted not into our employee's pockets but sent to a charity agreed upon.

All organisations are able to talk the talk but sometimes it takes a very brave leader to take the first step into walking the walk. And that, to me, is purposeful leadership.

In reply to Robey:

Hi Louisa

I don't think this is an expression that has a great deal of currency as yet. Like Robey, I am struggling to see how someone can be a leader if they are not purposeful.

The three interlocking circles in your diagram would seem to me to be essential to any form of leadership. I have tried thinking about what leadership might look like if one of the three were absent, but I don't think what you are left with is leadership. For example, if you take out "moral compass" does that leave you with an Adolf Hitler? No, because he had a very strong moral compass. It was utterly perverted, but his leadership was firmly rooted in his own obscene morality.

In reply to Elizabeth Divver:

Totally agree with colleagues that the term ‘purposeful leadership’ is a bit of a nonsense / a tautology - just the same as uphill climbing or downwards descending.......

In reply to Robey:

I do like Robey's suggestion of 'purposeful management' or managers. Some people rise up the hierarchy almost by default and being 'purposeless'. In order to embrace 'a set of high-level values, mirrored by healthy ethical cultures inside workplaces' you need commitment and INTENT, which would set a leader apart from a manager. Leaders can of course be evident anywhere in an organisation - and beyond any job description.

In reply to David:

... or "business intelligence"?