HBR Guide to Crafting Your Purpose

CHAPTER 11

Creating a Culture of Purpose

Shundrawn Thomas learned early on how good and bad leadership can influence peoples’ lives. Growing up in modest circumstances on the Southside of Chicago, Shundrawn and his three siblings benefited from wonderful parents who taught them to live “other-centered.” Both his mother and father worked, volunteered, carved out time for their children, and invested deeply in their church. But their material resources were limited, and Shundrawn recalls an experience his freshman year in high school—a tale of two teachers, so to speak—that taught him the critical importance of good leadership.

Shundrawn’s English teacher was a disciplinarian who required all papers be typed and turned in precisely on time. Shundrawn’s ...