What separates a leader who holds a title from one who holds a team? In Purpose Before Position, Dr. Vanessa Ervin, President and CEO of Carobell, argues the difference is whether purpose or position is steering.
“Positional leaders rely on authority,” she writes. “Purpose-driven leaders rely on calling.” The first asks what it can demand. The second asks whom it is there to serve. She names three ways leaders fall backward: clinging to the title, acting without empathy, and rejecting wise counsel.
Ervin offers a five-step process for putting the idea to work:
- Clarify your calling. Ask what work makes you lose track of time, what problems you keep returning to, and where people say you make a difference. Write it in one plain sentence.
- State your stewardship. Tie the calling to the people you serve. Her example: “I steward safety and dignity for frontline staff so they can care better for patients.”
- Align your role. Map each duty to that statement, and reduce or delegate what doesn’t advance it. Set three non-negotiables.
- Build a council. Form a small group, including people who think differently, that meets monthly and asks blunt questions.
- Teach stewardship. Use stories and simple rituals, and recognize people who live the mission, not just those who hit metrics.
She pairs this with daily habits: open meetings by naming the mission, ask “Does this serve the calling?” before expenses, hires, or policy changes, hold weekly humility reviews to surface mistakes, spend time where the work happens, and say no on purpose.
The book illustrates the method with three examples. A hospital director whose patient complaints and turnover were rising redefined the job around patient dignity, cut meetings, and added a feedback ritual; when a funding crisis hit, staff and donors rallied. A nonprofit CEO under pressure to chase grants rewrote the mission around community voice, declined funding that didn’t fit, and lost short-term income but gained reputation and volunteers. A tech manager shifted from delivery dates to user outcomes, and quality improved.
Ervin also champions the “solutionist” approach: diagnose three layers deep, design fixes ethically, pilot small, measure outcomes tied to the mission rather than vanity metrics, and share results.
On criticism, her advice is to invite critics into a listening session. If the criticism exposes a flaw, fix it; if it is noise, answer calmly. “Purpose is not fragile,” she writes. “It grows stronger with honest feedback.”
Her credentials back the claim. She chaired a hospital board, served on a regional healthcare policy board, became a national trustee, and co-chaired a state task force called “Keeping the Public’s Trust.” The book ends with a task that takes minutes: write a stewardship statement and pin it where you’ll see it each morning.
Her work Purpose Before Position is available on Amazon.
