I'm Katherine Klein. I am a professor at the Wharton School, a professor of management. I'm also the vice dean for the Wharton Social Impact Initiative.I'm excited to offer this module on purpose driven leadership. So, let's get started. So, what is purpose? Purpose, you probably know the definition. But, when you look it up in the dictionary, what you see is purpose is the reason for which something exists or is done, made or used and intended or desired result - a goal. It also means determination or resoluteness. So, what is your individual purpose? What is your purpose? My purpose? At the deepest level, your purpose is a statement or really a sense of why you exist. The difference you want to make in the world through your work and other activities. The overarching goal that fills you with determination and commitment. So, this is pretty heady stuff. This is real. Finding your purpose as we'll discover, or cultivating your purpose, is a challenge and an opportunity that can really make a difference in our lives. What about organizational purpose? What's an organization's or business' purpose? Again, it's a statement of why you're in business. The difference your business wants to make in the world through its products, services or work processes, and the overarching goal that fills you and other members of your company or your organization with determination, commitment and pride. So, what is purpose driven leadership? Really, fundamentally, purpose driven leadership is about leading ourselves and others with purpose, with a clear focus on the contribution goal that we want to make to our community, to our company, to our family, to the world. More formally, we think of purpose driven leadership as the process of influencing members of the organization or business and ourselves to work to achieve a goal that is noble and carrying a goal that contributes not just to the self interests of employees, leaders of the organization itself, but that contributes to the greater good of the community, the society, the country or the world. So, why a class on purpose driven leadership, specifically, purpose driven leadership in business? Really, I see three reasons motivating this. The first is that business is changing. So, there's increasing expectations and opportunities for business to be purpose driven. Employees, employers, customers, actually investors, too, are calling for purpose driven leadership. So, that's reason one. Another is that purpose driven leadership increases the likelihood that we actually achieve our purpose, that we do make a real contribution. Third is that purpose gives us meaning. It gives us and the people we lead meaning, satisfaction, energy, and it increases our performance. So, in this class, we're going to dig into purpose driven leadership. We'll talk about how business is changing and becoming more focused on purpose; not just profit, but profit and purpose. We'll talk about what it means to be a purpose driven leader, how you can cultivate your sense of purpose, what purpose driven leaders actually do. We'll talk about some of the challenges of purpose driven leadership and how you can overcome those. So, before we move on to that content, let me just tell you a little bit more about me. I am an organizational psychologist. Psychologists study what makes people think. Why we think and feel and behave as we do. An organizational psychologist study what makes people think in the workplace. So, we study leadership. We study job satisfaction. We study training. We study organizational change. I'm also the vice dean of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative. And, fundamentally, the word in Social Impact Initiative is all about purpose driven leadership. Our tagline is, business strategies for a better world. We want to help our students and others in the world become purpose driven leaders, so they can lead businesses in ways that create greater value for the world. We focus on strategies of leadership, of finance, of marketing and more that allow companies to achieve purpose of what we think of as a better world while also earning a profit. Just a little bit about me personally, purpose has always been a key driver of my research. It's guide in what I do, sometimes very consciously, sometimes less consciously. But, I've always found that my work is most gratifying and meaningful when my work is aligned with my purpose. Certainly, I'm a vice dean. People sometimes say to me, "Oh, You do this administrative work. How can you stand it?" Well, turns out I love it. But, part of the reason I love it is because I care so much about the mission of the word in Social Impact Initiative. All right. So, as we get ready to take you on to further lessons in the class, I encourage you to just take a moment now to think about two questions and jot down your answers. So, one is, what is your purpose in taking this course? The second is, how do you hope to use what you learn in this class, this module, to achieve a contribution goal that you have? How do you think what you learn in this module might help you make a positive difference for your family, your company, your community or the world?
