The Question of Leadership has a new name. When I first started this blog, I thought my focus would primarily be on answering the question of what leadership is all about. When I look back on many of the entries in this blog and reflect on the leadership work I’ve done with organizations, I realize that I’ve had an answer all along. Leadership is about creating meaning. That’s the common thread in all of the work I’ve done. Leaders create meaning by providing context and perspective to that which is happening around them. Thus, the new name for the blog is “Making dollars by making sense.”

I think that the idea of meaning is often overlooked or under valued. “Meaning” is one of those squishy words that doesn’t seem particularly practical, especially in a business environment. We are taught to act, not necessarily to think.

Yet, I believe that those leaders who take the necessary time to create meaning will be rewarded. There is a widening body of literature on this topic from Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”, to books on analytics to books on storytelling in orgnaizations. Meaning is here and it’s necessary for organizations and their leaders.

There are four areas in which leaders create meaning:

1. Creating a meaningful contribution to their organization
2. Creating meaningful work for their people
3. Creating meaning from information and data
4. Creating meaning for themselves and the work they do

Nearly every post in this blog ties to one of those four categories. Moving forward, while I’ll continue to write on a wide array of topics, I will filter all of them through this lens.

I hope that this blog has helped you make sense of your role as a leader and wish everyone a new year full of meaning, purpose, and impact.