As we struggle through the most serious economic crisis since 1929, it’s clear that we do not yet know what the business landscape will look like when we do finally emerge from the recession. What we do know, however, is that leadership is more important than ever and organisations that are well led have much more chance of surviving these turbulent times. This is not the occasion to take your eye off critical processes of leadership development – and smart organisations know this.Perhaps the most significant contribution of good leadership is the provision of meaning and purpose. As the great – and sadly departed – American writer Studs Terkel famously observed: “Work is about daily meaning as well as daily bread; for recognition as well as cash; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday-through-Friday sort of dying. We have a right to ask of work that it include meaning, recognition, astonishment and life.”