How Purposeful Leadership Drives Success: A 3-Step Framework

As the CEO of SHRM Linkage, I know my biggest impact is not just on business results. It’s in the impression I leave on my team and others. I have worked for and alongside leaders who understood their essential role in shaping workplace culture. Good leaders do more than manage people — they inspire, support, and help them grow.

That’s why I believe in the power of purposeful leadership that makes people feel valued and helps them understand how their contributions support the collective.

The positive outcomes of purposeful leadership are backed by research. Compared to U.S. workers with less effective managers, those with highly effective managers are twice as likely to feel satisfied and fulfilled by their jobs — and more than twice as likely to feel a deep sense of commitment, belonging, and value within their organization, according to SHRM’s Effective People Managers report. When employees have purpose, organizations thrive. Customer satisfaction improves, turnover decreases, and profits increase.

While I believe that some leadership qualities are innate, the best leaders do not become so by accident. An analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that structured leadership development programs improve job performance and business success.

Organizations cannot rely on luck — hoping that leaders will naturally gain the right experiences to influence and inspire. Instead, they must be intentional about developing purposeful leaders. This requires the right training, coaching, and opportunities to refine necessary skills over time.

To build better workplaces, we need leaders who act with purpose and intention. We need organizations committed to elevating their high performers into purposeful leaders.

How to Develop Purposeful Leaders

Purposeful leadership isn’t just a concept — it’s a tangible and trainable approach to leadership that can transform workplaces for the better. Here are three steps companies can take to be intentional in developing great leaders.

1. Define Leadership

Many companies offer training without clearly defining what makes a leader great within their organization. This can lead to inconsistent and ineffective assessments and, ultimately, poor results. The first step to developing leaders is to define what exemplary leadership looks like in the context of the company and its culture.

Start by asking these questions:

• What are the common qualities of the best leaders within your organization? (Note: I know defining what is considered “best” can be subjective — consider starting with those who show high engagement, retention, and business results.) How do these qualities align with the company’s values and goals?
• Are these qualities rewarded, reinforced, and modeled within the company?

When companies clearly define attributes that align with their mission and goals, they can intentionally embed these things in hiring, training, and development programs for future leaders.

2. Measure Leadership

Once the attributes and values are defined, it is important to assess how well leaders demonstrate these qualities. Without measuring leadership effectiveness, it is difficult to know if an organization has the right leaders in place.

A strong assessment process should include multiple methods, such as:

• Psychometric testing to identify leadership strengths and development areas.
• Employee surveys to review how leaders influence workplace culture.
• 360-degree assessments to show leadership effectiveness across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Business performance metrics to reveal how leadership affects organizational success.

The goal is not just to evaluate the individual but to understand how their leadership impacts the entire organization. A great leader does not just succeed individually. They create an environment where their team can thrive.

3. Test Leadership

Ultimately, how can organizations know that purposeful leaders are in place? They watch them work: The real growth comes from hands-on experience.

Early in my career, my employer recognized the importance of developing leadership through lived experience. They sent me on an assignment in Africa, where our company had a suboptimal presence but exponential growth opportunity. This was not a business trip. It was a deliberate opportunity to test and strengthen my leadership skills in a challenging and unfamiliar environment.

I had to build trust, form relationships, and solve problems without established staff or systems. This experience was not just about achieving business outcomes. It was about adapting to uncertainty and developing the skills needed to navigate complex situations. And I learned to lead under pressure.

By intentionally exposing leaders to these types of experiences, organizations can test — and then develop — the skills they need to lead with confidence and purpose. While challenges in the workplace naturally shape leaders, we do not have to wait for these to occur by chance.

Throughstructured development programs and experiential learning, organizations can create environments where their talent can practice navigating complex situations before they face them in real life.

In my experience, aside from functional expertise, the best leaders have three common traits: empathy, vulnerability, and agility. And while these can be “born” qualities, they can also be built.

• Empathy: The ability to lead with compassionate and active listening can be refined through situation-specific role-playing. This begins with leaders understanding their own emotions, biases, and reactions to be able to step into the shoes of their team members without judgment or distraction.
• Vulnerability: Through feedback and self-reflection exercises, leaders can learn to give and receive constructive comments with honesty and openness. These experiences teach them how to acknowledge and share their own shortcomings while creating a space where others feel comfortable doing the same.
• Agility: Developmental assignments and problem-solving exercises challenge leaders to adapt quickly, think critically, and implement creative solutions, preparing them to lead through change and navigate complex business environments.

Purposeful Leadership is the Future

By defining leadership attributes and values, measuring what matters, and giving real opportunities to grow, companies can develop a new generation of talent that will lead with purpose and impact.

The best leaders do not just create results. They lead with purpose, creating workplaces where people feel valued and inspired to do their best.