We often hear about companies benefitting financially by articulating and prioritizing their moral values. This could be one reason why: A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom found that employees perform better when their bosses lead from a place of purpose.
In a study for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a professional association for human resource managers based in the United Kingdom, researchers found that employees are “happier and more productive” when their bosses display “purposeful leadership,” acting on moral values, such as concern for the “wider society” beyond the company.
“When modern managers display ‘purposeful’ behaviours, employees are less likely to quit, more satisfied, willing to go the extra mile, better performers and less cynical,” according to the press release for the study.
Catherine Bailey, a professor of management at the University of Sussex and a lead researcher on the study, said in the press release that, “People… respond to leaders who care not just about themselves but wider society, who have strong morals and ethics, and who behave with purpose.”
Unfortunately, the researchers found that only one in the five managers they interviewed described themselves as a “purposeful leader.”
Is your office run by a purposeful leader? And if you lead a team within your company, are you acting from a place of purpose? Reflect on those questions while reading more about the study here.
Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com