Five signatures to buy a stapler.

Main Author: Srinivas A, Founder & Chief Scientist, Peopleverse

Isn’t it almost comical how some organizations behave? They spend millions to craft a majestic ‘Purpose Statement’ and then bury it in a slide deck no one ever reads. Managers hold town halls preaching fairness, yet everyone in the room knows who will get the promotions. They announce ‘employee empowerment’ programs, while requiring five signatures to buy a stapler. They preach fairness while openly favoring a few, destroying trust. They claim to ‘empower’ people, yet control every decision to the last detail. It’s management theater, not leadership. And it’s why talented employees silently disengage, why strategies fail, and why the so-called ‘best practices’ collapse under their own hypocrisy.

Have you wondered why do leaders who speak endlessly about vision/ purpose often fail to inspire real performance?

For thousands of years, from Krishna to Confucius, Aristotle to the Stoics, all insisted that human flourishing depends on finding and living one’s purpose?

Our recent studies show this: purpose alone doesn’t drive performance. It becomes powerful only when leaders translate it into daily dialogue, fairness, and autonomy. So, the question for you as future leaders is this: will you treat purpose as a slogan on the wall, or will you make it a lived experience that awakens commitment and unleashes performance.

History tells us a story. The greatest leaders didn’t need slogans; they lived their purpose, and people followed. Ashoka, after the Kalinga war, turned an empire of conquest into one of compassion, carving his purpose into stone for all to see. Marcus Aurelius led Rome with Stoic conviction that a leader exists to serve the common good. Abraham Lincoln bound a divided nation by framing freedom as its higher calling. Even in business history, J.R.D. Tata and Toyota’s founders built companies on service to society, not quarterly slides. Purpose, when embodied, gave these leaders moral authority that inspired people to perform beyond compliance and drama — because they believed in something larger than themselves. Everyone - employees, customers, share holders went home happy.

And this is where it comes back to you. As employees, you will inherit leadership positions where people look up to you — not for slogans, but for signals of what truly matters. Purpose is not crafted in a boardroom; it is lived in the daily choices you make, in the fairness you display, and in the autonomy you grant. Ashoka didn’t preach compassion while rewarding cruelty. Lincoln didn’t speak of freedom while tolerating slavery. Their actions were their strategy. The same will be true for you: your behavior will either make purpose real, or expose it as empty.

So here is my challenge to you: when your moment of leadership comes, will you be another manager who hides behind hollow words and gets roasted in glassdoor and business week— or will you be the leader who makes purpose breathe, who turns it into performance, and who leaves a mark in history.