Leading with Intention: An Update

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to hold leadership roles that have stretched and challenged me, providing insights into leading with intention. I recall my first job in high school at a local supermarket. Starting as a shopping cart attendant, I was soon promoted to the Produce Department. My ability to relate to and serve customers with professionalism led to my appointment as Customer Service Manager at just 17.

Reflecting on those years, I realize they were invaluable in teaching me that intentional leadership is something one can refine and nurture throughout their career. Leadership manifests in various forms, whether in the workplace, classroom, orchestra, or sports team.

In my professional journey, I've experienced leadership as a project team lead, product manager, and most recently in my current role. Whether as an individual contributor or a manager with direct reports, I've found that great leadership thrives on intentionality based on the below five values. But through personal and professional experiences, I have come to appreciate the value of one more which brings these key values to six.

Six Key Values for Intentional Leadership

Ongoing Stewardship:

I define this as an ongoing willingness to authentically serve others with integrity.?From getting your hands dirty by doing some nitty-gritty work to help the team; asking questions about how things are going in?routine 1:1s with team members;?and acknowledging team-members specifically for?good work done are examples of how servicing others can go a?long way in demonstrating leadership with intention. This value?is so critically important that if one does not practice this value consistently it can singlehandedly?compromise one's?leadership effectiveness even if the other 4 values are practiced flawlessly.?

Constructive Feedback:

I truly believe that as a leader, it is important to provide feedback to our peers in a constructive and professional manner.?Often times, it is easy for one to resort to more direct and even harsh ways to communicate but this is not always effective. Of course, especially if you are in a position with business accountability, one would be remiss to be soft or indirect to his/her team.??This is why providing direct and honest feedback in a professional manner can go a long way in not only cultivating growth but also establishing respect and unconditional loyalty from others.?"Good teams" can be managed-well with consistent constructive feedback and "high-performing"?—?who may get their motivation from within and typically do not need to be managed?—?will thrive on this level of feedback and perform at an even greater potential.?

Deliberate Transparency:

When I changed companies and started a new leadership role, I wanted to be fully open and transparent with my team on what I was doing and what I expected of myself in the first 90 days.?Therefore, after a couple of weeks of understanding the role and expectations, I prepared a scorecard of things that I wanted to accomplish in the first 3-months.?In many ways, this was for my own ramp but also it was to show my commitment to the team and what I wanted to achieve in my effort to attain some small-wins.?After clearly documenting these individual KPIs, I shared it with my direct staff.?The content itself was aggressive but more importantly, my?openness?had a positive impact in fostering trust in a short period of time within my staff and, equally importantly, it created a positive reverberating effect of transparency within the organization.??

Collaborative Teamwork:

Many times the word?“teamwork”?is overly and/or incorrectly used in the office.?As you may agree, just because people may be on the same team, it does not mean they are actually working?together?as a cohesive unit.??This is often referenced in sports.?For example, if a basketball player has the ball and does not pass it around to playmates, he / she is not operating as a team player.?The business world is no exception from this.?Being a team requires members to collaborate, listen, respect, trust, and work together in order for it to work in its optimal form.?This starts with the leader whose job is to not only to preach collaboration but to also demand it and acknowledge those who role-model this behavior.

Listening with Discipline:

As I am sure we can all relate, distractions coming at us in every which way, it is easy to lose focus and to not let our ears do their God given talent: listening.?I have found in my 17 years of experience that leaders who thoroughly listen to their team members, staffs, and/or superiors are the ones who speak when they have something of substance to say and seek to understand first before being understood themselves.?But we can also become victims of chaos and noise in our day to day activities and, consequently, try to multitask when listening to others.?This is ineffective and only compounds the communication gaps and misunderstandings that often happen between people.?By making eye contact and listening with 100% attention to someone, we can minimize the communication gaps that can happen and, as a result, demonstrate?leadership with intention in the process.?

Growth Mindset:

This is a new one for me that I believe has become increasingly important especially with the pace of innovation that is happening in front of us. I would like to share more thoughts about this in a future blog but to me a growth mindset shifts focus from fixed intelligence to embracing continuous learning and development. Embracing challenges, learning from feedback, celebrating effort, adopting lifelong learning attitudes, and fostering supportive environments are practical ways to model this mindset and nurturing intentional leadership.

Final Thoughts

These six keys are critical for leading with intention. Practiced with integrity, they form the foundation of authentic leadership in my opinion. As I continue refining these skills, I recognize that leading with intention is an ongoing journey of improvement. What are your keys to leading with intention? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.