The Clarity Principle: How Great Leaders Make the Most Important Decision in Business (and What Happens When They Don't)

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The Hunger for Purpose

A few months ago, my colleagues at Pivot and I designed a leadership-development project for a cohort of up-and-coming PayPal leaders. Among the things I learned from the experience—described in more detail shortly—is how important it is for the people of an enterprise to feel that their work is guided by a shared central purpose. Purpose provides a sense of community and a point of orientation—a North Star, if you will. It is the institutional equivalent of a charismatic individual’s point of view. The value employees place on purpose can outrank even the importance they place on money.

It is easy to be skeptical of such a claim. Money is typically presumed to have the strongest hold on people’s motivations. And, without ...