Meaning Over Purpose

The CEO’s Strategic Blueprint for Growth and Lasting Engagement

Grounded in 25 years of experience and proprietary research, Meaning Over Purpose is a leadership book that serves as a blueprint for aligning personal meaning with organizational purpose. It shows leaders how to boost employee engagement and build a meaningful work culture—where people find fulfilment and the organization thrives.

Lead with Meaning
Close the Gap
Improve Performance

Purchasing Options

Order Your Copy – Available via major booksellers (Amazon, Waterstones, and more).

Amazon UK

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Amazon US

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TG Jones

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Waterstones

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Amazon Kindle

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Practical Inspiration Publishing

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Book Resources

Alongside the book, Angela Rixon provides free tools and assessments to help you put the ideas into practice. Access the Meaning Over Purpose diagnostic tools from the book’s appendix here:

If you would like to review your results with me, book a review call.

Book a Review Call

Download a Meaning Over Purpose Discussion Guide

Use these companion guides to support you to reflect on, take action and embed meaningful work. Click on the heading to download each guide.

Executive (CEOs, board, senior leaders): Embedding meaningful work at scale
Through chapter-by-chapter questions and exercises, this guide enables you and your leadership team to reflect on how meaning connects to performance, culture, and strategy at the organizational level. You will identify gaps and surface new ways to embed the Five Pillars into your company’s systems and leadership standards. The guide also helps you consider how to measure progress using Meaning Metrics™, ensuring that meaningful work becomes a managed part of your business strategy.

Team Leaders (middle managers and supervisors): Creating Meaningful Work for Your Team
This guide helps you reflect on how your leadership behaviours and team routines influence meaning at work. You’ll practice re-framing your team’s purpose, strengthening the Five Pillars of Meaningful Work™, and testing small team rituals that build engagement, psychological safety, and performance. The result: a more motivated team that finds daily work more meaningful.

Individual Contributors: Finding More Meaningful Work:
This guide helps you clarify where your work feels meaningful today and where it doesn’t. By working through the prompts, you’ll explore small ways to close your personal Purpose-to-Meaning Gap™ and take action to strengthen key drivers of meaning – autonomy, mastery, connection, purpose, and impact – in your current role.

Change Enablers (HR, OD, DEI Professionals, Coaches and Consultants): Supporting Leaders and Organisations to Strengthen Meaning
This guide will help you use reflection questions and exercises to diagnose where meaning is strong or at risk in your organisation or client system. It offers practical prompts for coaching leaders, supporting teams, and aligning policies or practices with meaningful work principles. It is designed to spark insight and open conversations that can inform how meaning is strengthened, whether through leadership behaviour, people practices, or cultural rituals.

Meaning Over Purpose Discussion Toolkit™
Want all the guides in one place? The Meaning Over Purpose Discussion Toolkit™ is a consolidated set of all four role-specific guides, offering a shared framework and language for meaningful work. This comprehensive toolkit is designed to spark reflection, enable structured group discussions, and provide practical checklists that can be applied in daily work and leadership conversations. (The toolkit is available for purchase as a downloadable resource.)

We can help you implement Meaning Over Purpose™

Leadership Programmes and
On-Demand Learning:

Dive deeper with our Lead with Meaning™ leadership development program or the self-paced Own Your Meaning™ course. These programs translate the book’s concepts into guided learning experiences, helping you build meaningful leadership skills and a purpose-driven culture in real time.

Executive and Career Coaching:

Work one-on-one with Angela or a certified coach to apply the book’s insights to your personal leadership challenges. Our executive and career coaching helps you craft a clear plan to boost engagement, drive cultural change, and achieve the meaningful success outlined in the book – tailored to your situation.

Consulting and Culture Change:

Get expert support to implement meaning-centred strategies at an organizational level. We offer consulting services to embed the Meaning Over Purpose™ blueprint into your company’s DNA – from leadership training workshops to culture audits using our Meaningful Work Ecosystem™ and Meaning Metrics™. We partner with you to turn the book’s ideas into a sustainable, engaged workplace.

Speaking and Workshops:

Bring the inspiration of Meaning Over Purpose to your wider team. Angela Rixon offers keynotes and interactive workshops that share the science of meaningful work and jump-start the conversation within your organization. These sessions are a perfect way to build momentum and buy-in for your meaningful work initiatives.

(Find out more about our Programs, Coaching, Consulting, and Workshops on the Services page.)
Find out more

Why it matters

A disengaged workforce is not just an HR issue – it’s a strategic risk. Meaning Over Purpose is built on the premise that meaningful work drives real results. By aligning purpose and meaning, you can achieve:


Lead with meaning,
work with meaning,
succeed with meaning.

  • Higher clarity and confidence in leadership decisions.
  • Greater employee engagement and discretionary effort.
  • Stronger team performance with less risk of burnout.
  • Improved retention and loyalty among top talent.
  • A resilient culture that adapts and thrives through change.

“Meaningful work fuels extraordinary results. My goal with Meaning Over Purpose is to give leaders a practical roadmap to create those results by infusing work with genuine meaning.”

Angela Rixon, Founder and CEO
The Centre for Meaningful Work

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What people are saying

“Every day, I ask myself how I can lead in a way that encourages people to show up and be committed to our purpose and values. It’s not easy. Work is changing ever more quickly, not least because of technological changes. It certainly isn’t like the days when I started! People can and should move on to develop themselves and learn—in that environment, how do I offer meaning and fulfilment from their first day until their last? This thoughtful and wonderfully researched book addresses those multigenerational challenges- I am with the fictional Sarah on this journey. Thank you, Angela.”

Dr. Paul Williams
UK President, Maximus Limited

“What do you want to do when you leave school?” A career has flown by, and I am still unable to answer that question in terms of a specific job. But the constant throughout has been a desire to feel that my efforts have meant something to my colleagues, business, and customers.  Angela has turned the elusive concept of “meaning” into a method for success that leaders can tap into for our future generations. Technology advancements are likely to immeasurably change the world of work. Her book will enable organisations and leaders to make “meaning” measurable, actionable, and scalable, where talent is engaged to face the future with confidence and build their own lasting legacy.”

Richard Barrett
Head of Group People Development, OneSavings Bank Plc
Research Contributor to Meaning Over Purpose

“Angela draws from a wealth of experience; this book provides an invaluable resource really offering practical solutions in the ever-evolving world we operate in. Understanding the meaning of work, and having a meaningful career ensuring inclusion, engagement is at the heart of what we do and need to do. A great read and resource to support culture change.”

Elaine Bartlett
Director of People Operations, Maximus UK
Research Contributor to Meaning Over Purpose

Order Your Copy Now – Ready to dive into Meaning Over Purpose? Order your copy today and start transforming how you lead and work.

The Future of Leadership is Meaningful.

Are you ready?

Don’t wait for disengagement, burnout or attrition to force change.
Now is the time to make work more meaningful for you, your teams and your organization.
Now is the time to build a culture that delivers results and makes work matter.