When my partner Barb Ross-Denroche and I opened The Refinery in 2002, we promised each other we were going to do something different from the other leadership firms. We would take risks, shake things up, be bold. We weren't sure if business leaders were ready for the things we had to say, but here we are six years later and they're still listening. So it was a real pleasure to sit down recently with Nikos Mourkogiannis, a world-renowned leadership consultant who knows the power of a bold idea. Published in 2006 (Palgrave MacMillan), his book Purpose continues to resonate with CEOs around the world. Nikos himself is more certain than ever that senior leaders need to be shaken up--and fast. I couldn't agree more.

For some time at The Refinery we've been warning that all is not well in organizations. The almost obsessive focus on short-term financial performance despite disturbingly low employee engagement rates and increasingly unsettling data on senior leadership performance confirms our suspicions. Ruled by the almighty dollar and clinging to obsolete business values, senior leadership has lost its way. Clearly profit is important, but should it be the most important thing? Can it be? The central argument of Nikos' book is that a company's most critical attribute for sustained success is purpose-- or, to be exact, Purpose with a capital P. True Purpose, he tells us, is bigger and runs
deeper than ambition or competition or any of the other usual drivers. On a personal level, "Purpose will incorporate a deeply felt awareness of yourself, your circumstances,
and your potential calling. For the organization, "It underpins trust between individuals both within and beyond the firm, as well as making individuals more sensitive to each
other's requirements&. creating an enduring advantage that is not dependent on the fate of this or that strategic position. Nikos asserts that Purpose is critical to any
business that hopes to thrive, that the most profitable companies are those with Purpose, while those that focus solely on profit are leaving money on the table. Whether you agree that purpose is a primary success factor, these days you'd be hard pressed to argue against anything that helps an organization build stronger relationships, outside and in.

But here's where we get to the tricky part. Nikos writes that "Leaders do not simply invent a Purpose; they discover it. This requires that they listen to themselves and their colleagues, and are sensitive to their moral ideas. From there, "they must establish a Community of Purpose in their organizations& [and ensure the Purpose] remains right for the firm and for the people in it. But, as we've learned through fieldwork and confirmed with recent research, the unfortunate reality is that many executives lack the basic leadership skills to put Nikos' advice into action. We know that many executives still clinging to the outmoded heroic-leader model, running their organizations with their heads down, eyes trained on the bottom line, and office doors shut. They tell us they're too busy worrying about share prices and profits to listen to themselves, let alone their colleagues and employees.



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