HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

5 Principles of Purposeful
Leadership
by Hubert Joly
Published on HBR.org / April 06, 2022 / Reprint H06YSB

Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Growing up, I thought successful leaders were supposed to figure

out all the answers on their own. Being smart — and making sure
everyone else knew it — seemed to be their most striking attribute. The
best schools were supposed to lead to the best jobs, which produced
the best leaders. Power, fame, glory, and money were the measure of
professional success. Early in my career, prominent business leaders
like GE’s Jack Welch were revered for their intellect, strategic sense, and
hard-charging style. They were considered infallible geniuses, inspiring
a quasi-cult following.

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HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

This traditional model of the leader-hero who saves the day, knows it
all, is the smartest person in the room, and is too often driven by power,
fame, glory, or money is not appropriate in today’s environment. This is
true for several reasons:

• Today’s fast-changing, complex, and unpredictable environment

necessitates a different kind of leadership. Nobody can claim to have
all the answers to solve the complex crises we’re facing, and the most
adaptable organizations are those in which decisions are being
decentralized.
• With the idea that a company’s purpose is about far more than
making money gaining ground, the hard-charging, profit-optimizing
hero-leader model has lost much of its appeal.
• An increasing number of employees now value authenticity and
connection over a facade of strength and infallibility.
• The nature of work has changed from the more mechanical, repetitive
type to jobs that require ingenuity and creativity.
• Successful hero-leaders can easily start believing that they’re
untouchable and, ultimately, indispensable. It’s easy to be seduced by
power, fame, glory, and money. It’s easy to become disconnected
from reality and from colleagues, surrounded by sycophants and yay-
sayers.

Unsurprisingly, people today expect a different kind of leader. While

each company needs to define its own leadership point of view, here’s
the philosophy we deployed at Best Buy as part of our surprising
turnaround and resurgence. It’s based on five attributes — five “Be’s” —
of what I believe characterizes leaders who are able to unleash the kind
of human magic you see at work at some of the most high-performing
companies. This philosophy underpins the leadership principles that I
believe are at The Heart of Business today.

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HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

Be clear about your purpose.

That is, your purpose, the purpose of those around you, and how that
connects to your company’s purpose.

The staggering number of employees leaving their jobs or seriously

thinking about it over the last several months has shed renewed light on
the pre-Covid realization that purpose, both individual and collective, is
at the heart of business. I’ve written about several aspects of corporate
purpose, from how to define it and make it come to life to why it’s an
essential element of motivation. For corporate purpose to be successful,
leaders themselves must first be clear about what drives them and the
people around them.

Corie Barry, my successor as CEO of Best Buy, once shared with me that
her personal purpose is to leave something a little better than when she
found it, which she connects to the company’s mission to enrich lives
through technology. Every day, she maintains her connection with that
purpose by asking herself how things at Best Buy were a little better that
day because she was there.

Just as crucial for leaders is understanding what drives people around

them. Recently, a CEO I coach felt members of his team worked
primarily to advance their own functional areas rather than the
organization as a whole. Together, we realized that, although he was
clear on his own purpose and his organization’s, he didn’t know much
about what drove the people around him. Without that knowledge, he
was unable to help connect their purposes with the organization’s and
to provide a common, overarching pull for all team members.

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HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

Be clear about your role.

A leader’s key role is to create energy and momentum — especially

when circumstances are dire. It’s to help others see possibilities
and potential, creating energy, inspiration, and hope. I would have
dismissed this idea 30 years ago, but it’s essential to the role of a
purposeful leader. As Dolly Parton is thought to have said: “If your
actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become
more, you are a leader.”

The late Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson’s video message to employees

during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic powerfully illustrates this
“Be.” He first offered support to employees directly affected by the
virus. He then explained that the pandemic was severely battering
Marriott’s hospitality business and what the company was doing to
mitigate the crisis. There was no sugarcoating, but no panic either.
Finally, he focused on signs of recovery in China before concluding on
a hopeful note, projecting to the day when people would start traveling
again. His message was honest, heartfelt, and moving, while at the same
time uplifting and inspiring.

You cannot choose circumstances, but you can control your mindset.
Your mindset determines whether you generate hope, inspiration, and
energy around you — or bring everyone down. So, choose well. I was
reminded of this every morning when I worked at Carlson. A statue of
Curt Carlson, the company founder, stood in the lobby of the company’s
headquarters, engraved with the words Illegitimi non carborundum —
mock Latin best translated as “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

More generally, your role as a leader is to create the right environment

for others to flourish in support of the company’s purpose. For example,
under Reed Hastings, Netflix, a company whose purpose is to “entertain
the world,” has created a culture of “freedom with responsibility” that

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values people over process and innovation over efficiency, resulting in

growth and reinvention that have defied all expectations.

Be clear about whom you serve.

Hint: It’s not yourself.

A fundamental element of purposeful leadership is to be clear about

who you serve in your position, both during good and challenging
times. As a leader, you must serve the people on the front lines,
driving the business. You serve your colleagues. You serve your board of
directors. You serve the people around you, by first understanding what
they need to give their best so you can do your best to support them.

In fact, view everyone as a customer. The way you treat airline

employees or waitstaff, for example, will greatly influence the service
you receive. This is a lesson that a top executive in one of the companies
where I used to work learned the hard way. He was once stuck in an
airport after his flight had been canceled. While standing in line at the
service desk, waiting to get rerouted, he lost his patience and marched
to the front of the queue. “Do you know who I am?” he hissed to the
person behind the desk. “Ladies and gentlemen, I need your help,” said
the airline employee, addressing travelers in the queue. “We have a case
of forgotten identity. This man here does not know who he is!”

It takes vigilance and a healthy dose of self-awareness to avoid sliding

into the trap set by power, fame, glory, and money. Before speaking or
acting, be clear about your motivation and whom you’re trying to serve.
“If you believe you’re serving yourself, your boss, or me as the CEO of
the company, it’s okay — it’s your choice,” I once said to the officers of
Best Buy. “But then you should not work here. You should be promoted
to customer.” I meant that there was no room at Best Buy for people
whose main purpose was to advance their own interests. Some leaders

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HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

think that having sharp elbows and listening to their ego will serve their
career. But as my friend Jim Citrin, who leads Spencer Stuart’s CEO
practice, wisely remarked: “The best leaders don’t climb their way to the
top over the backs of others, they are carried to the top.” And serving
others is how it happens.

Be driven by values.

When I worked for McKinsey early in my career, I sought some

leadership advice from one of my partners. “Tell the truth and do what’s
right,” he said.

For the most part, we all agree on what is right: honesty, respect,
responsibility, fairness, and compassion. On paper, every company has
great values. But values are no good if they remain on paper. Being
driven by values is doing right, not just knowing or saying what’s right.
A leader’s role is to live by these values, explicitly promote them, and
make sure they’re part of the fabric of the business.

Johnson & Johnson, for example, is famous for its credo, first written
in 1943 by the company founder’s son. Its opening sentence reads: “We
believe our first responsibility is to the patients, doctors and nurses, to
mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.”

The company’s decision in 1982 to quickly stop its production of

Tylenol, one of its bestselling products, and voluntarily recall all
31 million bottles that had already been distributed throughout the
country, illustrates how the company leaders lived by its credo. The
decision was made after several people in the Chicago area had died
after ingesting tablets that were found to have been contaminated with
cyanide. While the recall was costly in the short term, it is widely
remembered as a model of good leadership and crisis management.

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HBR / Digital Article / 5 Principles of Purposeful Leadership

Doing what is right is not always simple, of course, particularly during

crises, when overwhelming stress and pressure can obscure our sense
of values. Harry Kraemer, professor of leadership at Kellogg and an
executive partner with the private equity firm Madison Dearborn, points
out that one of the main principles for leaders to embrace is to firmly
believe that they are going to do the right thing and do the best they can.
If you surround yourself with people you trust and whose values align
with yours and the organization’s, you don’t have to figure out on your
own what’s right in these situations. You will determine the right thing
together, and then act on it the best you can.

Being driven by values also means knowing when to leave when you’re
not aligned with your environment, be it your colleagues, your boss,
your board, or your company’s values and purpose. Have the wisdom to
know the difference between what you can and cannot change, as the
saying goes.

Be authentic.

When I stepped down from Best Buy in 2020, I sent an email to our
senior leaders and board members and a farewell video to all company
employees. “I love you!” was the title of the email. I concluded the video
to employees with similar feelings. Laying bare my heart and my soul
in this way would have been unthinkable a few years before. Like many
leaders of my generation, I long believed that emotions were not meant
to be shared in a business context. I have been told that the longest
journey you’ll ever take is the 18 inches between your head and your
heart.

It’s a long and arduous journey indeed, and it took me a lifetime to

embrace the fifth (and for me by far the hardest) “Be”: Be yourself, your
true self, your whole self, the best version of yourself. Be vulnerable.
Be authentic. Being vulnerable and authentic does not mean offloading

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everything to your colleagues. For leaders, it means sharing emotions

and struggles when appropriate and helpful to others.

As many of us were forced to work from home over video over the past
two years, we revealed more of our whole selves — children, dogs, cats,
wifi problems, etc. This was not always comfortable or easy. But we all
had to see each other in a new light, as full human beings. Employees
expect leaders too to be human. This starts with making ourselves
vulnerable, including by acknowledging what we do not know. Brené
Brown points out that vulnerability is at the heart of social connection.
And social connection, in turn, is at the heart of business.

•••

The way we lead has profound implications on people around us

and how we do business. We cannot transform companies, and more
generally capitalism, unless we reflect on who we are as leaders, and
particularly on the following questions:

• Have you decided what kind of leader you want to be?

• How would you describe your purpose?
• How would you describe your role?
• What are you doing to create an environment in which others can
thrive and flourish?
• Who are you serving?
• What values define you?
• Are you doing your best to be authentic, approachable, and
vulnerable?

So, start with yourself. Be the leader you’re meant to be. Be the change
you want to see.

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Hubert Joly is the former chairman and CEO of Best Buy, a senior
lecturer at Harvard Business School, and the author, with Caroline
Lambert, of The Heart of Business. He has been recognized as one of
the top 100 CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review, one of the
top 30 CEOs in the world by Barron’s, and one of the top 10 CEOs in
the U.S. by Glassdoor. Joly is now keen to add his voice and his
energy to the necessary refoundation of business and capitalism
around purpose and people.

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