Leading with Purpose: Inspiring Meaning at Work

Overview

This short course is for leaders who want to move beyond task management and focus on creating meaning and purpose within their organisation. It offers time to reflect on long-term direction, your sense of self in role, and how your leadership can shape both your team and the wider world. The course is designed for professionals wo want to explore the deeper purpose of their work, and its ethical and cultural impact. 

You will draw on narrative psychology and organisational culture research to explore how your leadership story shapes your choices, use of power and influence on others. You will also consider how to align your values with those of your team and organisation, connecting day-to-day actions with broader social and environmental goals.

Through tasks and small group discussions, you will examine how everyday decisions signal what matters and how those signals shape your work culture over time. You will also explore how to articulate purpose amid change and pressure, while ensuring your values resonate throughout your team and organisation. The course also addresses typical challenges such as role stretch, culture change, values under strain and the pressure to “do more with less”, using real cases to ground your understanding.

By the end of the course, you will have a clearer sense of the meaning you want your leadership to convey, along with a plan for shaping culture, supporting colleagues and driving lasting change. No prior study in psychology is required. It can also be a foundation for follow-up coaching, action learning sets or further accredited study in leadership or supervision. 

Programme details

Session 1 – Work, complexity, and meaning 

This session sets the frame for the day. We look at complex, changing work and ask what it now means to lead. The group explores where targets and tasks have crowded out thought about purpose. We then name the key aims of the course – to see leadership as meaning making, and to link that to self, others, and the wider world. 

Session 2 – Your story as a leader 

Here the focus shifts to your own story. You will map the story you tell about who you are at work and what you are there to do. We explore how this links to your values and to what your employer asks of you. The group looks at how this story shapes choice, power, and the way others read you as a source of meaning. 

Session 3 – Daily acts and the culture you shape 

This session brings the work down to ground level. We track how small, daily acts send signals on what counts and who counts. You will work with peers to spot patterns in your own habits and in local norms. The aim is to see how you already make meaning in your team, and how that links, or fails to link, to stated values and aims. 

Session 4 – From team purpose to wider impact 

The last session looks outwards. You will work on ways to speak to purpose with your team in times of change and strain. We then link team aims to larger social and world goals that matter to you. The session ends with a short plan for next steps on how you will shape culture, support colleagues, and seek wider impact over time. 

Attending your course 

Further details will be emailed to you two weeks ahead of your course, which will include registration information. 

If you have not received your joining instructions five working days before the course start date, please get in touch. 

In the meantime, you may wish to plan your travel: Travel information  

Certification

In order to be eligible for a certificate of attendance, you will need to attend the whole course. Participants who meet this criterion will be emailed after the end of the course with a link, and instructions on how to access their University of Oxford digital certificate. 

The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate, as well as share it on social media if you choose to do so. 

Fees

Description Costs
Standard course fee £685.00

Payment

You can enrol on this one-day course individually, or as part of our Leadership Skills: Discount Registration Package, 5-8 May 2026.

Fees include course materials, tuition, refreshments and lunch. The price does not include accommodation. 

All courses are VAT exempt. 

Register immediately online  

Click the 'Book now' button on this webpage. Payment by credit or debit card is required. 

Request an invoice 

If you require an invoice for your company or organisation, please email us to request an online enrolment form. Payment is then accepted online, by credit/debit card, or by bank transfer. 

Tutor

Dr Graham Wilson - Course Tutor

A PhD in animal behaviour, and initial career in organisation development followed by psychotherapy training, led Graham to practise as an executive confidant for 20+ years. He has taught counselling, psychology and photography at Oxford and elsewhere for a decade. Recently retired as Coordinator of HE Counselling Courses at Guildford College, his research interests include the use of imagery to provoke positive behavioural change within communities. Graham currently leads programmes of therapeutic photography within Oxfordshire. He has written more than ten textbooks.

Application

If you would like to discuss your application or any part of the application process before applying, please click 'Ask a Question' at the top of this page. 

Accommodation

Although not included in the course fee, accommodation may be available at our on-site Rewley House Residential Centre. All bedrooms are en suite and decorated to a high standard, and come with tea- and coffee-making facilities, free Wi-Fi access and Freeview TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme. 

To check prices, availability and to book rooms please visit the Rewley House Residential Centre website. 

Enrolled students are entitled to discounted accommodation rates for the purpose of study, at Rewley House, and can contact the administration team for the promotional code to use for making online accommodation bookings via the website.