Leadership: In Pursuit of Purpose

ABSTRACTAddressing what is perhaps the biggest blind spot in leadership theory and practice, this article sets out to enshrine the pivotal role of purpose. First, it introduces the Telos Leadership Lens (TLL) consisting of the following principles:1) Leadership is a responsibility of the many, not a privilege of the few2) Leadership is the collective pursuit of delivering on purpose3) Leadership purpose is to be guided by internal goods (exemplified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals).Second, the article further develops leadership ontology, ‘the theory of entities that are thought to be most basic and essential to any statement about leadership’, by shifting the focus to purpose. Third, emerging from these developments it identifies a new leadership model. Separately or in combination, these contributions can assist organizations in addressing current and future challenges, some of which are existential in nature as evidenced by the climate crisis, and others such as the Covid-19 pandemic potentially changing the way we live our lives and conduct our business. Although challenges of this scope can only be solved in partnership, the very nature of current leadership convention may obstruct or even prevent such partnerships from taking place in any meaningful way.MAD statementThis article aims to Make a Difference (MAD) through positioning the notion of purpose and the collective pursuit of delivering on such at the very core of leadership theory and practice. This is done by first providing a new theoretical leadership lens with the potential to enrich existing and future initiatives, before suggesting that purpose is essential to all leadership conversations and practice. Emerging from these contributions is a leadership model with the potential to guide future research, training, development, education, and practice. As a result, the article may help inform and increase leadership capabilities and capacity in support of the urgent delivery on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and other complex challenges requiring meaningful partnerships and all hands on deck.KEYWORDS: LeadershipLeadership modelLeadership ontologyPAC ontologyPurposeTelos Leadership Lens AcknowledgementsThe author would like to thank Ben Kuipers and Malcolm Higgs for early conversations about leadership and purpose; Drath et al. (2008) and Kempster et al. (2011) for their inspirational work; and Mike Beer and the two reviewers for making the article so much better than what it originally was.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsRune Todnem ByRune Todnem By, PhD is Professor of Leadership at University of Stavanger Business School, Norway, where he delivers on the Executive MBA and MSc Business Administration programmes. Following 15 years in British higher education, he returned to Norway in 2019 to continue his scholar-practitioner work on leadership and organizational change with a particular focus on reframing theory and practice to better address twenty-first century challenges. Rune is a member of the UNESCO Futures Literacy network, research affiliate at the Centre for Leadership, Ethics and Organisation at Queen’s University Belfast, and co-founder of the Public Leadership Foundation.