Are You Developing Purpose-Driven Leaders?

Imperative has studied the development of purpose-driven leaders extensively over the last three years. We studied over 300 purpose pioneers across the United States, Europe and Asia who were featured in my book, the Purpose Economy. In 2015 we conducted a study on purpose with NYU on the American workforce and followed it last year with a global version of the study with LinkedIn. We have worked with over 50 employers from MetLife to West Elm to help them develop purpose-driven leadership programs using the science of purpose.

Purpose-driven leaders produce extraordinary results. Their teams are 125% more productive because they inspire everyone around them to realize their potential.

10 Attributes of Purpose-Driven Leaders

There are 10 attributes we have found associated with these exceptional leaders who embrace purpose.

1. Have a backbone and stands up for their values
2. Are driven to make an impact - not just for money and status
3. Recruit more intrinsically-motivated talent for their teams
4. Create an environment of psychological safety for their team
5. Set bold shared visions that inspire their teams
6. Align individual, team and organizational purpose
7. Define business outcomes through impact, not just economics
8. Own their biases and creates an environment for a diversity of purpose drivers
9. Serve as a powerful ambassador and evangelist for their organization
10. Support colleagues in actively improving their work to derive meaning

Three Stages of Development

In our research we have identified three stages in the development of purpose-driven leaders. They serve as a framework to design leadership development programs and to measure purpose within an organization. Imperative has just released a guide to develop purpose-driven leaders that includes step-by-step advice on how to invest in purpose in your organization.

Download the eBook: Purpose-Driven Leaders - The Three Phases of Development

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Aaron Hurst is an Ashoka Fellow, award-winning entrepreneur and globally recognized leader in fields of purpose at work and social innovation. He is the CEO of Imperative and founder of the Taproot Foundation which he led for a dozen years. Aaron is the author of the Purpose Economy and has written for or been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV and is the author of the Fast Company Purposeful CEO series.