Leadership Intentions for 2021

Goals vs. Intentions - which is better? 

It's the first business day of the new year! Congratulations! If you're reading this, you survived 2020, and that is no small feat. I suspect, in 2020, you learned a lot about adaptability. The goals you started at the beginning of the year and the path to achieving them likely changed a dozen, if not a hundred times. And that's the drawback of goals. Forces outside ourselves heavily influence them. And it is the battle between these ideals and the influencing forces that leave us battle-worn and bloody. (Comment below if you know the feeling!) 

On the other hand, intentions are the opposite. They flow from the inside out. And flow is a keyword. Actions flow from who you want to be instead of what you want to accomplish. Here are a couple of examples:

Example 1: A leader of a sales team

There's no doubt, as the leader of a sales team, your team has a sales goal. To achieve the plan, you and your team will focus on what it takes to make sales - planning, prospecting, presentations, and pursue, pursue, pursue. In contrast, setting intentions to be a successful sales team shifts the focus on who you and your team have to become to make that happen. Clearly, a successful sales team still meets its goals. Examples used to describe successful sales teams include disciplined, people of integrity, empathy for the prospects' needs, etc. As a leader, that changes the conversation. Instead of asking in the sales meeting, "what sales calls are you going to be making today?" the conversation opens us. By using a bit of design thinking wisdom, allow your questions to shift to "How might we... become more disciplined, keep our promises, be more empathetic?" This shift opens up the doors of connected conversations, creativity, and collaboration. Some days may mean scheduling more calls, but it could also be a weekly team workout regimen to improve discipline or volunteering at the local homeless shelter to enhance empathy skills. The ideas and potential impact are unlimited with intentions.

Example 2: A project leader

As a project leader, you have many goals wrapped into one. Complete the project - on-time, on-budget, and as fast a possible. Like the sales example above, it's natural to get a tunnel vision for the project's goal. However, if you polled the most successful project teams, you would likely find tunnel vision detrimental to a project's completion. Instead, remain open to the project's flow, the collaboration between team members, creative problem-solving (design thinking being a leading innovative technique for that), and others are much more conducive to success. 

In summary, the critical distinction is: 

Goals seek to improve what is targeted; intentions seek to improve who we are. - Karen Zeigler

And this brings us to six leadership intentions for 2021. 

6 Leadership Intentions for 2021

Regardless of how long you've been a leader, a new year gives each of us a fresh opportunity to follow the wisdom of Stephen Covey - begin with the end in mind. And I'm talking more than the end of the sales cycle, the project, or the year. I'm talking about the end, END. The leadership legacy you want to leave behind. Whether that's the very end of your career or just the end of the leadership position you are in currently. It's essential to set intentions for how you want to impact the people under your influence. As I look across the legacy of many great leaders throughout history, here are six intentions I believe every person that calls themselves a leader would benefit from setting. 

L - letting people know you care

Theodore Roosevelt said it best - People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. These words written in 1898 are more needed now than ever as we begin leading by design in the Experience Age. Our time in 2020, lockdown taught us so many valuable lessons. Those who thrived the best were those who learned what was most beneficial to them and embraced learning and enhancing those people, places, and things with enthusiasm. In contrast, they decided to eliminate those that weren't. For employees today, leaders who don't care are at the top of the list of things to cut. Life's too short; the stakes are too high; not to create and experience life and work that you love.

E - Ego domination

If there is one thing on this shortlist that will knock everything else on this list off course (including any goals and aspirations), it's your Ego. Ego is easy to spot unless you're looking in the mirror. And it's this powerful and invisible force of the Ego that makes it crucial to get under control. No example is more apparent than the career of Steve Jobs. His Ego got him fired from Apple, and it was the control of his Ego that paved the way for his comeback. This ego domination may have been his pursuit of Zen Buddism or his health battles. Either way, we have a choice to pursue ego domination or let Life serve us up the lessons. Choosing for ourselves seems to be a better option. There are many books, classes, and knowledge to be found on the topic, but this Steve Job's quote puts it in perspective and is a great mindset to cultivate in 2021. 

I don't care about being right. I care about success and doing the right thing.

- Steve Jobs

Being right is job #1 of the Ego, and it is essential to stay alert to the many ways it reveals itself. Releasing our need to be right is a great step in the direction of Ego domination.

G - generous with your resources (time, talents, money, and wisdom)

Start where you're at with what you have. I started this paragraph with that sentence because so often, people will reject the idea of generosity because they fall for the lie that they don't have enough. It's just not true. When you look across the spectrum of leaders throughout history, you'll find the ones who are esteemed the most are the ones considered in worldly terms to have had the least. One simple hack that I've discovered turns off Ego chatter of not enough. Take a moment to pause before each encounter (and also during the meeting at times) and ask quietly to yourself - "How can I add value to this person (this project, meeting, etc.)"? Sometimes it's an intuitive hit; sometimes, it's a new awareness of a stated need that brings the answer to light. Nonetheless, I can be generous in adding value that is unique to me and the needs of the individuals involved and tasks at hand. 

A - actions match your words (a person of integrity)

Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain. It is the highest of personal freedom possible. As Zig Ziglar stated, "Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear since you have nothing to hide." He also said, "Trust is the byproduct of integrity." Trust and leadership go hand in hand. Regardless of your goals this year, employees require trust. Employees need to trust you to feel the psychological safety to put their heart into the work necessary to achieve the goals. 

C - create something amazing

Scan the leaders of history, and you will find that they all created something unique. Here are just a few examples

• Martin Luther King - created a movement
• Steve Jobs - built the Mac and a long list of innovations and new technologies
• Jack Welch - created an amazing company 
• Stephen King - wrote a prolific body of work

If everyone wrote on their tombstone what they created with their life, what would you want yours say?

Y - you. Be 100% unapologetically authentic.

In looking at this list, it would appear that this intention should have been intention #1 if this hadn't been an acrostic. However, the truth is, in being the former, we step fully into this final part of a legacy - into being 100% You. Unapologetically and authentically, with each intention, we tap into more of ourselves. And more of ourselves is revealed. In caring for others, we discover the deepest part of who we are, what we have to give when giving is the only goal, and in step after step with integrity, we create something bigger than ourselves—a legacy of leadership. 

Now it's your turn. Share your thoughts and the legacy you wish to leave in the comments below.