- ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, Founder and CEO at Thrive Global, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Thrive and The Sleep Revolution

Purpose may be the most powerful influencer of our behaviors, attitudes, and motivation in organizations, work, school, and life.

Yet despite the increasing evidence of purpose's power, many of the organizations, systems, and institutions that dominate human life aren't built to elicit and leverage the fundamental human search for purpose and meaning.

In "The Invisible Leader," award-winning purposeful leadership and meaningful work researcher and consultant Zach Mercurio, Ph.D. shows business leaders, educators, students, athletes, and parents HOW to discover, clarify, and deliver their reason for existence ― their authentic purpose. Readers will also learn how to create group cultures of significance and how to practically connect people to purpose every day.

For fans of Simon Sinek's "Start with Why," the "Invisible Leader" takes the next step and details both the science of how purpose works and the research-backed practices to implement it in our lives and organizations.

EXCERPT

INTRODUCTION: THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF PURPOSE

The search for purpose and meaning is fundamentally human—the unifying trait of our species.

Our yearning for purpose begins (to many new parents' dismay) as soon as we learn language.

As I write these words, my two-year-old has just learned the immense value of questioning to make sense of the world. It comes as no surprise that like countless other toddlers, he incessantly asks, "Why?"

These three letters represent, in my view, the most powerful question in human language—and the hardest to answer. When we ask "Why?" we seek a reason, a justification for the existence of whatever we're inquiring about. We seek a purpose.

But the answer to why is perhaps more transformative than the question. When we ask "Why?" of ourselves or our organizations, the answer is our purpose.

Purpose is our reason for existence, the answer to the question: Of what use are we to the world?

When stated clearly and enacted consistently, purpose has the power to unite, compel, engage, and transform our lives, our organizations, and the world.