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Even fewer can distill their purpose into a concrete statement.

In our work training thousands of managers at organizations from GE to the Girl Scouts, and teaching an equal number of executives and students at Harvard Business School, we’ve found that fewer than 20% of leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose. Purpose is increasingly being touted as the key to navigating the complex, volatile, ambiguous world we face today, where strategy is ever changing and few decisions are obviously right or wrong.ĭespite this growing understanding, however, a big challenge remains. Business experts make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional performance, while psychologists describe it as the pathway to greater well-being.ĭoctors have even found that people with purpose in their lives are less prone to disease. Academics argue persuasively that an executive’s most important role is to be a steward of the organization’s purpose. Over the past five years, there’s been an explosion of interest in purpose-driven leadership. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. And they emphasize the individual’s strengths and encourage a holistic view on work and family. They focus on future, big-picture aspirations and work backward with increasing specificity. Effective purpose-to-impact plans use language that is uniquely meaningful to the individual, rather than business jargon. In this article, the authors present a step-by-step framework that leaders can use to identify their purpose and develop an impact plan to achieve concrete results. As a result, they limit their aspirations and often fail to achieve their most ambitious professional and personal goals. Few leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose, the authors’ research and experience show, and even fewer can distill their purpose into a concrete statement or have a clear plan for translating purpose into action. Academics, business experts, and even doctors make the case that purpose is a key to exceptional leadership and the pathway to greater well-being.ĭespite this growing understanding, however, a big challenge remains.