Why Do Leaders Exist?
We assume everyone knows the answer. That's part of the problem.
Why do leaders exist?
Seriously.
What's your answer?
In one organization, several people told me leaders exist to tell people what to do and hold people accountable.
In another, people responded, "Honestly, I have no idea."
One person even joked, "To make my life hard."
Those answers not only hurt my heart, they shine a light on a significant challenge in today's workplaces.
People aren't experiencing the value of leadership.
And this isn't a people problem. It's a leadership problem.
If leaders aren't showing up in ways that create meaningful value for the people they lead, they're significantly underperforming.
So, Why Do Leaders Exist?
My perspective is straightforward: A leader exists to serve the people they lead.
Now, I recognize this says something about my values, my beliefs, and my orientation to business. So if you immediately feel yourself contracting or fundamentally disagree with this perspective, you're welcome to stop reading. This might not be for you.
Unless, of course, you're willing to go inward and do a little self-examination. Which I hope you are.
So, what do I mean by serving the people you lead?
I mean leaders exist to create the conditions for people to make meaningful contributions, now and in the future, in ways that align with the organization's culture playbook and brand.
And, naturally, in ways that align with their position agreements.
You have those, right? More on that later.
And be mindful, we're getting at purpose, not function. In other words, why leaders exist, not what they do.
Why does purpose matter?
It's one of the essential ingredients of high-quality motivation. It informs effective goal setting, strengthens communication, and provides the foundation for a compelling value proposition.
Purpose gives meaning and direction to what we do.
So, if you're looking for where to begin with leadership development, improving employee engagement, or addressing performance issues, you might want to start by answering one deceptively simple question:
Why do leaders exist?
It Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
Here's the good news. Establishing a shared leadership purpose doesn't have to be difficult. And it doesn't have to be unique.
If you care about people and want your workplace culture to have a net positive impact on the human beings who work there, you already have a pretty good place to start.
Leaders exist to serve people. To create the conditions for people to perform well, be highly engaged, and experience a strong sense of well-being.
It doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
The fundamental purpose of leadership remains the same across the organization. What changes is the complexity, scope, and accountabilities of each leadership role.
A frontline manager is leading individual contributors, while a CEO is leading other C-suite executives. Both exist to serve the people they lead, but what that looks like in practice is quite different.
You'll also want to consider the function of each role. Why does your organization need a Manager of Engineering? A Manager of Quality? A Vice President of Operations?
Each role has a distinct contribution to make, but all share a common leadership purpose.
Once you've established that shared understanding of why leaders exist, you have a foundation for creating clarity about the purpose of every leadership role in your organization.
Same fundamental purpose. Different complexity, scope, and accountabilities.
Purpose Is Only Useful If You Put It to Work
Once you've clarified why leaders exist, you need to operationalize that purpose.
And by operationalize, I simply mean put it to work.
Because defining the purpose of leadership is one thing. Creating an organization where leaders consistently fulfill that purpose is another.
So, what does that look like?
It means the purpose of leadership isn't something you introduce at a leadership retreat and promptly forget about.
It's embedded in how your organization operates.
It's reinforced when you onboard a new leader or promote someone into their first leadership role. It's part of their orientation to what it means to lead people in your organization.
The training, coaching, and development leaders receive are intentionally designed to help them fulfill that purpose.
Your leadership competencies are aligned with it. So are your position agreements and performance management systems.
The day-to-day activities of leadership reflect it. Leaders understand what they're there to accomplish and how their everyday decisions, conversations, and actions contribute to that purpose.
People can see what good leadership looks like because there are strong role models at every level of the organization. Including the executive team.
And what you recognize, reward, and incentivize reinforces the same expectations.
It's what you hire for. What you develop for. What you promote for. And, when necessary, what you fire for.
That's what it means to operationalize leadership purpose.
Not simply saying leadership matters, but building an organization where fulfilling the purpose of leadership actually matters.
Are Your Leaders Fulfilling Their Purpose?
Here's the other cool thing that happens when you get clear about why leaders exist.
You can actually evaluate whether they're fulfilling that purpose.
Are people experiencing the intended benefits of having a leader?
Do they experience their leader as someone who's there to serve them? To make their work easier? To remove barriers? To help them develop? To set them up for success?
Or is their leader actually making it harder for them to do meaningful work?
These are questions worth asking. And the answers should matter.
Because if people aren't experiencing the value their leader exists to create, that leader is significantly underperforming.
And, frankly, probably overpaid.
Why Are We Leaving Leadership to Chance?
If leadership is so important to organizational success, why do we leave so much of it to individual interpretation and chance?
I think the answer is pretty simple.
We assume people know.
We assume leaders understand why they exist, what they're there to accomplish, and what good leadership looks like.
But after 20 years of working in leadership development and 15 years in organization design, I can tell you this: They often don't.
And why would they?
When leadership isn't intentionally designed, people are left to figure it out for themselves.
They bring their lived experiences, for better or worse. They model what they've seen other leaders do. They make assumptions about what leadership requires. They experiment. They learn through trial and error.
Some figure it out. Others don't.
And the people they lead experience the consequences.
For something as important as leadership, that's a pretty lousy strategy.
Start Here
Want to know whether your organization has a shared understanding of why leaders exist?
Gather a group of leaders. Give everyone a stack of sticky notes. And ask one question:
Why do leaders exist in this organization?
Let them know there are no right or wrong answers. You're looking for honest, open, transparent responses. No names on the sticky notes.
Then collect the answers and see what's there.
What do you notice? What themes emerge? Where are there differences? What's missing?
And here's something I'd pay particular attention to.
If your organization claims people are its greatest asset, or describes itself as people-centric, but there's nothing in those answers about serving people, creating the conditions for their success, or contributing to their well-being, you've learned something important.
There's an opportunity to clarify and realign around the purpose of leadership.
Start there.
And then get curious about whether the people in your organization are actually experiencing the intended value of leadership.
If you're looking for a meaningful strategic initiative for next year, this might be one worth considering.
Imagine what could change if every leader in your organization understood why they exist, what value they're there to create, and how their performance will be evaluated against that purpose.
Not because you launched another leadership training program.
But because you intentionally designed leadership to deliver on its promise.
Leadership is too important to leave to chance.