About the episode

In this episode, Kellie sits down with Angela Rixon, Founder of The Centre for Meaningful Work and author of Meaning Over Purpose, to explore what human-centred growth really means and why meaning, not just purpose, is the missing piece in most workplace strategies.

Angela traces the idea back to a pivotal moment in her HR career when a colleague asked why growth conversations always centred on cost cutting rather than on people, a question that shaped her Five Pillars of Meaningful Work: autonomy, mastery, connection, impact and purpose.

The conversation moves through how leaders can build a bridge between organisational purpose and individual meaning, why coaching has replaced telling as the most effective leadership behaviour in a world where no one leader has all the answers and how to be intentional about connection in hybrid and distributed teams.

Angela closes with a reminder that leaders need to put their own oxygen mask on first and that meaningful change at work, like everything else, starts small.

Key Takeaways

• Growth doesn't have to mean cost cutting. Angela's career turning point came when a colleague asked why no one had considered growing the business through its people instead of through acquisitions or layoffs, a question that became the foundation for her work on human-centred growth.
• Meaning and purpose are not the same thing. Purpose is the external mission an organisation sets, while meaning is the felt, daily experience employees have of belonging, growth and autonomy. Angela argues organisations have over invested in purpose statements while ignoring meaning.
• The Five Pillars give leaders a practical framework. Autonomy, mastery, connection, impact and purpose can be applied first to leaders themselves, then to individuals and teams, to spot where energy is being gained or lost.
• Leaders don't have all the answers anymore and that's okay. Complexity, pace and AI mean leaders are often guiding change they don't fully understand themselves, which is why coaching has overtaken telling as the most useful leadership behaviour.
• Connection in hybrid teams has to be intentional. Office osmosis was never evenly distributed in the first place, so leaders need deliberate mechanisms such as drop-in coffee sessions, more frequent one to ones and more creative formal communication to recreate what used to happen by chance.
• Start small and protect your own oxygen mask. Angela's closing advice is to look after yourself as a leader first, then begin building meaningful work one small step at a time, starting with a simple question to your team: why does your work matter to you?

About Angela

Angela Rixon, founder and CEO of The Centre for Meaningful Work Ltd, is an award-winning leadership strategist, executive coach and culture-transformation specialist with over 25 years of experience. A former Partner at EY and Director at CGI and Mercer, she is recognised internationally for pioneering research and frameworks that close the Purpose-to-Meaning Gap™, enabling organisations to embed meaning into leadership, culture and performance. 

Her Amazon best-selling book Meaning Over Purpose explores the “Purpose-to-Meaning Gap” – the disconnect between what an organisation says and what its people actually feel. Challenging the assumption that purpose alone drives engagement, she provides leaders and executives with a practical blueprint for embedding meaning into the very DNA of their organisations.

🔗 Connect with ⁠⁠Angela on LinkedIn, or email @ [email protected]⁠ or ⁠[email protected]⁠

Also Mentioned

• Meaning Over Purpose by Angela Rixon
• The Centre for Meaningful Work

• Gainsight and former CEO Nick Mehta, an early voice in human-led leadership
• ⁠⁠Let's Flow⁠⁠⁠ A leadership mission and community, in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠Leah Stockley⁠⁠⁠, to make work better so that organisations and people thrive. Follow on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ or DM Kellie to get involved