As a leader in the social service sector my responsibility will be coordinate

efforts to meet an identified social need. Simon Sinek describes this identified need
as the why in his theory the golden circle. By Why I mean whats your
organizations purpose? Whats your cause? Whats your belief? Why should anyone
care? (Sinek, 2009). It is necessary to define and articulate this purpose in such a
way that it becomes the central structure that shapes strategic planning, culture,
and decision-making processes.
Similarly, Margaret Wheatley describes the critical nature of values driven
leadership. She states organizations that are clear at their core work from
congruence, not coercionclarity about who we are as an organization or team
creates freedom for individual contributions (Wheatley, 2005, p. 69). Having a
clear, concise, and well-articulated purpose, serves as the thread that unites the
daily work of employees. Structure is provided by understanding organizational
values and principles and staff members are empowered to use individual creativity,
knowledge, and skills to meet organizational goals.
An example of utilizing purpose to provide structure and simultaneously
empower staff was provided in Christopher Branchs presentation. He spoke about
creating a model formed from principles that you and your organization can get
behind and {then} encourage staff to go and experimentusing the principles of
the model (Branch, 2014). Creating a model creates a context to work in unity
while allowing for individualized responses based on situational factors. It appears
much more effective than power and control hierarchical structures that are less

adaptive. I believe leading from why empowers staff members to achieve

organizational mandate, and meet the human needs that drive social work practice.

References
Branch, C. (2014). Leading the leaders in CD practice [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved
from https://connect.ucalgary.ca/p4lw4gaplak/
Sinek, S. (2009, September). Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action [Video
File]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/H-6WvFGVmQM
Wheatley, M. (2005). Finding our way: Leadership for an uncertain time. San
Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.