ABSTRACT
Leaders and managers who serve as matchmakers of mission and meaning increase their chances of succeeding. Leadership and management styles will vary, but most of them will share certain best practices. These successful leaders and managers will strive to reach a profound level of professional connection with their team members, through ongoing conversation. They will take the time to understand their employees’ perspectives, their goals, their motivations, their individualized sense of purpose, and what is meaningful to them in their professional lives. They will strive to sustain a humane workplace that makes the most out of the contributions by team members by identifying and developing skills and then capitalizing on them to the benefit of both the team member and the organization. As strong communicators, these successful leaders and managers recognize and articulate. They demonstrate, through example, that the relationship between leader and team member is a two-way street.
