The connecting leader: Act with purpose and courage

In the face of permacrisis, uncertainty, geopolitical upheaval, combined with the constant evolution of market dynamics and technology, we can put our heads in the sand, be victims, and blame others—or we can have the courage to lead with purpose and take a stand for what we think is right. 

When a leader gets a foothold in the purpose of their organization, their ability to ignite engagement and commitment from others is amplified, bolstering their capacity to mobilize and inspire others in pursuit of their organization’s vision. In her research, Barsade called it “emotional contagion” and showed that leaders' enthusiasm and clarity of purpose are infectious, boosting team morale and performance.¹ This aligned purpose becomes the compass and the motivation that allows leaders to navigate through crisis, make courageous decisions, take risks, and stay resilient. 

Garry Ridge, who for more than 20 years was the CEO of WD-40, a US-based household products manufacturer, passionately believes leaders and businesses must understand their responsibility to support happy people who go home to build happy families who, in turn, support happy communities that create a better world. Ridge talked about how WD-40 exists “to create positive lasting memories, solving problems in factories, homes, and workshops around the world.” Its purpose is “to make life better at work and at home”—and better means for everyone, including all the employees, whom Ridge calls “tribe members.” Based on this belief, WD-40’s leadership team does what it takes to create an organization with the culture, talent, and teams all aligned with that purpose.²

Developing the capabilities to act with purpose and courage 

Our research and work have highlighted five key characteristics that will help leaders act with purpose and courage. Leaders should be: 

1. Self-aware—understanding of their own personal drivers, motivations, and biases; able to objectively evaluate personal emotions, strengths, and weaknesses; and aware of others’ perceptions
2. Purpose-driven—being strongly grounded in a sense of purpose, aligning personal and organizational goals with a socially meaningful purpose 
3. Inspirational—energizing others with a vision for the future that helps them ascribe greater meaning to their roles, resulting in heightened engagement and focus 
4. Courageous—willing to make tough decisions in an uncertain environment, even when actions may have unpredictable outcomes, and ready to take risks and learn from failures 
5. Resilient—adapting to and overcoming adversity in the face of turbulences, recovering quickly from difficult situations

Many leaders today talk about purpose superficially, but few have the conviction to live their purpose when the going gets tough. In fact, analysis of thousands of assessments of leaders we have conducted finds that courage is a rare leadership quality, the least common out of 33.³ Courage starts with deep self-awareness and connection to one’s convictions. Understanding both personal motivations and how others perceive them helps leaders become intentional about their behavior and better able to consistently strive to be their best selves to support others as individuals and their organization as a whole. The fusion of self-awareness and a strong sense of purpose may become a powerful source of the courage, risk taking, and resilience that are required to face difficult decisions that can often be at odds with others in the organization or community. 

To help leaders develop these capabilities, companies can support leaders to:

• Mind their leadership shadow. Everyone is taking cues from their leaders and top teams and, more than ever, people are hypersensitive to mixed messages. That makes it critical for leaders to be self-aware about their behaviors and live their personal and organizational purposes through their everyday choices, knowing that their words and actions are under constant scrutiny. 
• Explicitly connect all strategies and actions to the larger organizational purpose. Leaders should be relentless in communicating how specific strategies and decision link to the organizational purpose.
• Rally others around the organizational purpose through authentic leadership. As role models, it’s critical that leaders speak authentically and ask challenging questions to inspire others to live and breathe the organizational purpose. Leaders can address behaviors that don’t align with the purpose by raising issues with the appropriate leaders or by asking value-based questions.
• Show the courage to make hard choices, in a transparent manner. Leadership demands hard and often controversial choices that frequently affect people, but too often the decision-making process and rationale are opaque beyond the leadership team. Effective leaders take personal responsibility to explain how decisions and actions align with the purpose and are transparent about the reasons behind a tough call. 
• Focus on what is possible to control directly and prepare for setbacks. When taking risks or standing up for values, there will be wins and misses. Leaders should expect the need for resilience and agile contingency plans to enable them to bounce back quickly. 

Conclusion

Building the ability to act with purpose and courage is a skill that takes life-long learning. It starts with a single step or action and can become a habit through intentional practice and repetition. It takes time, perseverance, strength of character, and risk appetite—but the rewards will set leaders apart and equip them with the ability to inspire people in their organization or community to stay true to their purpose. 

References

¹ Barsade, S. G. (2002). The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and Its Influence on Group Behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644–675. 

² For more on how WD-40 did this, see Regis Chasse, Steven Krupp, and TA Mitchell, “The connecting leader: Five imperatives for leaders today,” Heidrick & Struggles, September 25, 2024, heidrick.com.

³ Proprietary Heidrick & Struggles’ analysis.