The Purpose of Leadership

By AMA Staff

In What Leadership Is For, Patrick Faniel, managing director of Management Centre Europe, argues that yesterday’s approaches to leadership no longer meet the demands of today’s complex environment. Leaders face too many competing priorities, and spreading leadership focus too thin can dilute effort and lead to failure.

Faniel’s view is that leaders should concentrate on a maximum of three drivers and set these to cascade throughout the organization. That focus creates coherence.

Why a New Leadership Model Is Needed

Many conversations about leadership focus on style or standards, such as communication, feedback and motivation. These are important, but Faniel argues that they miss a key question: What is leadership for?

The standards a leader brings may be consistent, but each organization’s situation is different. Different circumstances require different approaches. A company focused on innovation needs a different culture from one focused on efficiency. Leaders must choose the drivers they prioritize and adapt their leadership accordingly.

The Driver Model

Under Faniel’s model, leaders can choose from 12 potential drivers grouped across four quadrants:

• Business: growth, innovation and partnerships
• Process: strategy execution, effectiveness and digitalization
• People: employee experience, diversity and inclusion, and inspiration
• Market: customer focus, brand and personalization

Every driver matters, but leaders should not manage all of them equally. They need to choose which ones will truly drive the organization. Faniel recommends selecting no more than three, then devoting 75% of leadership attention to ensuring those drivers are central to how the company acts.

Making the Choice

The choice of drivers depends on the organization’s situation, purpose and resources. There is no ideal combination that works for everyone.

The concept can be applied at the top strategic level, but it also works at the business unit or team level. A team leader must be clear about which drivers matter most and communicate that focus to team members. If team members are all focused on different drivers, performance will suffer.

If the chosen drivers are growth, strategy execution and inclusivity, for example, that does not mean every other area is ignored. It means those three become the overriding focus of attention, and people at every level understand what that means for them.

How Leaders Identify Their Drivers

The first step is understanding where the organization truly stands today. Leaders may believe their drivers are clear, but the right questions often reveal misalignment within management teams and between management and staff.

The second step is clarifying where the organization realistically needs to go. Leaders, managers and staff may have different views of the future, and those gaps reveal operational tensions.

The third step is setting a clear objective based on evidence, not wishful thinking. Once the current state and desired state are understood, leaders can identify the drivers that will bridge the gap. They must consider the organization’s history, talent pool, competitive environment and whether the journey is achievable with the people and capabilities they have.

Warning Signs of Too Many Drivers

The first sign is running in all directions. When everything is a priority, nothing is.

The second sign is the absence of clear, shared drivers. People do not know what truly matters, so they spread their energy thin. Meetings multiply, initiatives overlap and the organization becomes busy instead of effective.

The third sign is a lack of alignment between actions and strategy. High-performing organizations have unmistakably clear drivers that show up in decisions. When an organization pursues too many drivers, that coherence disappears. The result is contradiction and declining results.

The remedy is simple but demanding: Choose fewer drivers and align everything behind them.

AI and Disruptive Technology

AI influences every driver, but not in the same way. Its impact depends on the driver the organization chooses.

If the driver is employee experience, an organization may not want AI to become the only contact point for new applicants. Human connection matters. But if the driver is operational excellence and the organization recruits thousands of people a month, AI may naturally become embedded throughout the recruitment process.

AI does not dictate the driver. The driver dictates the role AI must play. Depending on the chosen driver, AI may enhance efficiency, personalize experiences, accelerate decision making, improve quality, reduce costs or protect the human dimension.

Leaders must be intentional. AI can reinforce coherence, or expose the lack of it.

How MCE Supports Leaders

Management Centre Europe supports leaders and managers at two levels. At the individual level, MCE offers public workshops in 35 major cities across Europe and virtually, where participants learn from MCE experts and share experiences with peers. At the company level, MCE delivers customized learning solutions.

According to Faniel, “what leadership is for” is becoming a top priority for leaders who want impact, not training for the sake of training.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main idea of What Leadership Is For?

The main idea is that leadership is about making choices. Leaders should identify a few key performance drivers and focus organizational attention around them rather than trying to pursue every priority equally.

How many drivers should leaders focus on?

Faniel recommends focusing on a maximum of three drivers. He argues that pursuing more than that is counterproductive and can dilute leadership attention.

What are the 12 drivers in the model?

The 12 drivers are growth, innovation, partnerships, strategy execution, effectiveness, digitalization, employee experience, diversity and inclusion, inspiration, customer focus, brand and personalization.

What are warning signs that an organization has too many drivers?

Warning signs include running in all directions, unclear shared priorities, too many overlapping initiatives, meetings that multiply without progress and a lack of alignment between actions and strategy.

How does AI affect the choice of drivers?

AI does not dictate the driver. The chosen driver dictates how AI should be used. Depending on the organization’s focus, AI may support efficiency, personalization, decision making, quality, cost reduction or the protection of human connection.