Capstone Sa

What?

 

Common purpose is the social change value which refers to work based on shared end goals and objectives. Successful leaders are able to engage followers in the decision making process which ensures that all members of an organization share an overall goal (from the beginning of any endeavor) which is believed by all parties to be important and necessary.

 

I learned the meaning of common purpose through the many group projects I have worked on as part of this minor, the most memorable one being the video project for LDRS 1016. As part of that class, we were to separate in groups, direct, and produce short leadership movies. I had no experience in that area up to that point and I was not particularly interested in theater and cinema acting; however, since my group and I had the common purpose of working towards the dissemination of the leadership lessons learned in class I was able to focus on the end goal, to produce a movie that talked about leadership. Although this is a small example, focusing on the end goal allows teams and groups to work better together, it promotes trust among team members, and it allows team members to focus on what is most important, to bring about change.

 

So What?

 

Changes are usually difficult, time consuming processes which require commitment, collaboration, and most of all, focus on the end goal all of which translates into common purpose. This group value of social change is of high relevance to leadership processes because it reminds both leaders and followers of the main objective of any work to be completed which is to cause a positive social impact. Furthermore, common purpose ensures that no hidden agendas exist among team members which allows the team to move forward in creative, collaborative ways.

 

Many times throughout the courses I took for this minor I found myself questioning what the end goal of all of this was and I believe that as a leader the end goal is really to stay on task, to focus on the common purpose and to work continuously for the betterment of communities around the world. As such, the existence of a common goal as part of any leadership process becomes very important as it helps both leaders and followers setting a vision and focusing on the expected reward that is change.

 

Now What?

 

Learning about the importance of common purpose to leadership processes will allow me to better focus my energy and efforts in future endeavors as well as it will aid me on not losing track of the ultimate goal of my work as a leader which is really a continuous work that I hope will bridge education and social change.

 

It is important to me as a leader to have my actions focused on the team’s main interests and for this reason I believe learning about common purpose will help me achieve my team’s trust which will certainly foster an atmosphere of growth in which all participants can improve themselves while focusing on the team’s most important final goals.