Rob Dobi
Many companies today declare a corporate purpose and subsequently find that translating it into strategy, culture, and daily decisions is difficult. Underlying that challenge is a critical question: Who will ensure that a purpose commitment is operationalized?1
In response, companies seeking to institutionalize purpose are creating a new executive role. Cisco, Deloitte, Virgin Atlantic, and others have appointed chief purpose officers (CPOs), signaling that organizations are increasingly recognizing the need for dedicated leadership of these efforts. (See “What Every CPO Must Do.”) Our study of 56 of these emergent leaders reveals that individuals can take markedly different approaches to the role, depending on how purpose is conceived at their organization and the degree to which it has been operationalized.2
We identified four leadership archetypes that reveal distinct ways in which purpose becomes operational and examined the conditions that enable or constrain their impact. Different types of CPOs face distinct execution barriers that can cause purpose to stall. In this article, we’ll look at each leadership profile and explain how to determine which aligns best with current organizational needs.
Four Types of Purpose Leadership
Of the four distinct types of CPOs we encountered in our sample, the largest group (39%) was the visionaries, who aim to inspire shared meaning and emotional connection. About one-fifth were activists, who confront institutional contradictions and use purpose as a moral compass, while one-quarter were architects, who strive to institutionalize purpose through governance and systems. PR strategists were the smallest group (16%); they prioritize crafting coherent narratives that align brands and communication. We’ll look at each archetype in turn.
Visionary CPOs often emerge in smaller, family-owned, or founder-led organizations. In these settings, values are often deep in the company’s DNA but not explicitly articulated or translated into strategy.3 For these leaders, purpose is an ethical and social obligation that must be lived collectively but not necessarily communicated outward. They inspire others to embrace and embody the organization’s purpose, fostering collective commitment to executing a purpose-driven strategy. They translate the company’s core values into a shared sense of meaning for employees. Their leadership is deeply personal, and they identify closely with the organizational purpose.
Visionary CPOs prioritize helping employees connect to purpose on an emotional level. Their storytelling is unscripted and relational: It surfaces in conversation, in shared rituals, and in how employees describe their own work to one another. They may host reflection circles, where employees share how their work connects to the company’s purpose; run coaching sessions focused on aligning personal and organizational purpose; and hold offsite retreats that give teams space to explore why their work matters and how it contributes to fulfilling the company’s purpose. One Danish fashion company holds weekly meetings in a park to reflect on its social impact. Small rituals like these sustain collective reflection and strengthen what one leader called the “emotional glue” that binds people across the organization.
These types of CPOs tend to cultivate influence by building personal connections and informal networks rather than via formal authority. They participate in company sports, join lunch conversations, and use everyday interactions as opportunities to reinforce shared meaning. Many view such a relational approach as the optimal way to create soft power and trust. By weaving purpose into daily relationships, visionary CPOs allow it to diffuse organically to become part of how people experience belonging and identity at work.
These leaders also seek to empower others to lead, recognizing that making purpose a shared responsibility helps facilitate organizational change. Many create cross-functional teams that host purpose dialogues, pilot new practices, and surface dilemmas for senior leaders to address.
Visionary CPOs may find it challenging to be seen as a strategic peer in the C-suite, given that purpose work often does not yield immediately tangible outcomes. Several study participants noted that their work was initially dismissed as “nice to have” rather than essential to organizational performance. Over time, most visionary CPOs learn that their own credibility depends on demonstrating how purpose advances business results. To achieve that, they must balance the work of translating moral conviction into measurable impact with efforts to maintain the human connection that makes purpose stick among their organization’s internal audience.
Activist CPOs work
