Here is an excerpt from an article written by John Baldoni and featured by CNN online. to read the complete article, please click here.

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Leadership is a choice. Pure and simple

When you assume a position of authority, either formally as a manager or informally as a team leader, you make the choice to lead. Management is the discipline of getting things done right. Leadership is the art of doing what is right for good of the organization. In other words, management is execution; leadership is inspiration.

Inspiration emerges from purpose, knowing what you do and why you do it. Organizational purpose emerges from the vision, mission and values of an organization.

Apple is fine example of a purposeful organization. Its leadership under Steve Jobs at the helm was focused on producing well-designed products, easy to use as tools of productivity or means of entertainment. Everyone in Apple has been focused on this mission. You could say much the same about the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. Everyone from top to bottom, and that includes maids and wait staff, knows how to deliver a superior guest experience.

Among the ways leaders instill purpose in an organization, according to research conducted my book, Lead With Purpose: Giving Your Organization a Reason to Believe in Itself, is through communicating the vision, tying customer benefits to employee contributions, and linking work to results.

Creating a purposeful organization is not easy. It takes the commitment of senior leaders who hold themselves accountable for delivering on the corporate mission. A fine example of this is Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies, a global IT services company headquartered in Delhi.

As Nayar wrote in his book, Employees First, Customers Second, “The role of the CEO is to enable people to excel, help them discover their own wisdom, engage themselves entirely in their work, and accept responsibility for making change.” Toward that end, Nayar regards himself as a servant of his organization one who holds himself accountable for putting individuals and teams into positions where they can excel.

Purpose is especially necessary in tough times. As Roger Webb, President of the University of Central Oklahoma, told me an in an interview: “If people don’t feel the purpose, and don’t feel the goal and [know] that they are accomplishing things and moving forward, then depressing news can really bring people down.”

While purpose is the spark that sets up the vision — where an organization is headed — and defines its mission, it becomes inert if not practiced. So a leader must “connect the dots” between what an employee does and why it matters to the organization.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

John Baldoni is a leadership educator, executive coach, speaker, and author of 10 books, including Lead by Example, The AMA Handbook of Leadership, Lead Your Boss and his latest, Lead With Purpose. You can check out a treasury of his work by clicking here.

To watch a few of his videos, please click here.