Leader’s Intent (#322)

Last week I hosted a workshop with a group on the west coast to build their leader’s intent at three levels. The leader’s intent is a military tool that works exceptionally well in the corporate world, too. Building your team’s leader’s intent at three levels harnesses the true power of the leader’s intent — forging alignment and the ability to adapt to a changing environment at one and two levels down from a leader.

Does your team have a leader’s intent?

Leader’s Intent

The leader’s intent, or intent, works well for corporate, non-profit, and sports teams. Like the commander’s intent, the leader’s intent has three parts: the purpose, or a why; key tasks, or the what or the how; and a defined end state, or what does success look like. A leader’s intent describes how the CEO or leader envisions the environment at a point in time in the future. It shows what represents success. A leader’s intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information, and changes in what the competition is doing may make a plan either completely or partially obsolete as it is being executed. The role of leader’s intent is to empower subordinates and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to an ever-changing environment. Like in the military, understanding the leader’s intent at least two levels up and two levels down increases alignment.

For the leader, make sure you have a deep understanding of the three aspects of the leader’s intent:

The purpose, or the why (think about a slightly broader purpose than in a mission statement. It needs to enable people to make decisions in your absence).

Key Tasks that must be accomplished (maybe one for each department, division, or section). There are two ways to think about key tasks. First, each of your business units or silo may need a key task, or you may need to break down the end state into a series of steps that need to be accomplished during a specific time period. Make sure that each task is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.

The end state, or what success looks like (I find it helpful for the end state to be measurable and be tied to a date in the future). End State describes how the world looks at a certain date in the future. It takes tough intellectual work to develop an end state that you, your direct reports, and their direct reports can envision and helps move the organization in a positive direction. Finding the right metric to use may require an iterative process. For military units, it is helpful to conceptualize an end state that looks at friendly forces, enemy forces, and the environment. Sports teams may find it useful to conceptualize the future from the perspective of your team, the competition, and the fans. Businesses may find it helpful to conceptualize the future from the perspective of your business, the competition, and the clients or users. Finally, non-profits may find it useful to think about the future from the perspective of your group, what you are supporting, and the donors.

Leader’s Intent Examples

Here are three examples of leader’s intent that demonstrate its utility in different situations.

For corporate groups, here is a small manufacturing company’s leader’s intent from early 2020:

• Purpose: ACME Manufacturing will keep the team safe and employed.

• Key Tasks:

  • Preserve cash

  • Sales team must get orders, especially in the 2nd Quarter

  • Cost containment – use our money frugally

• End State: By December 30, 2020 ensure ACME Manufacturing has met 75% of 2019 sales and production.

ACME Manufacturing was able to make 103 percent of its 2019 sales, as well as improve their efficiency during the pandemic due to their leader’s intent.

Another example is Apple Computers in late 2006. They had just released the MacBook Pro laptops, transitioned to Intel processor chips, and the iPod and iTunes were doing well. The company needed to keep innovating, so hypothetically they might have used a leader’s intent that looked something like this:

• Purpose: Challenge the status quo and increase shareholder value

• Key Tasks:

  • Build user friendly, beautifully designed, easy to use devices

  • Expand services platforms

• End State: Annual revenue up 17% by December 31, 2007

Apple went on to release the iPhone in 2007, significantly disrupting the status quo.

Lastly, think of a state park or any other government organization.

• Purpose: Be the premiere destination in Georgia for outdoor adventures.

• Key Tasks:

  • Visitor Services —

  • Law Enforcement

  • Maintenance

  • Engagement

  • Volunteers

• End State: By December 31, 2020 the state park will host 40,000 visitors and receive less than 10 1-star reviews on google.

Love’s was able to meet all their goals in spite of the pandemic.

The three examples of leaders’ intent provide just a start for you and your team. Developing a great leader’s intent is an iterative process and one that requires input from and collaboration with your team.

Leader’s Intent helps you and your team better navigate the road ahead

Developing Your Leader’s Intent

Drafting a leader’s intent in a vacuum rarely works. Instead, it must be a team effort. Once you have your organization’s purpose sorted out, it is important to bring the group together and discuss the key tasks that must be accomplished and what the collective vision for the future is. Getting the group’s buy-in makes it much easier to get the group to strive towards accomplishing the leader’s intent. I find that this exercise works best in a room with a large wall and large pieces of paper to write on for groups or individual leaders.

Have each member of the team read this article. Then bring the team into a large room and spend some time talking about your understanding of the concept of leader’s intent. Take large pieces of paper (or white boards) and place them around the room along with markers. Divide the leadership team into small groups and give them an hour to come up with a leader’s intent for the entire team (your leader’s intent). Have each group brief you and the rest of the group on their version of the leader’s intent. Select one group’s leader’s intent or build a hybrid to use as the overall group’s leader’s intent. 

Once you have settled on the overall leader’s intent, place it on the wall where everyone can see it. Then, send each leader back out to a fresh piece of paper for another hour to create her leader’s intent for her portion of the organization (one-level down). Have each leader brief one of their peers on their leader’s intent, get feedback, and then swap. Once they refine them, have each direct report talk you through their leader’s intent. In a couple of hours, you can have aligned leader’s intents for the overall organization and the next level down.

Once you have finalized the leader’s intent, communicate, communicate, communicate it to the organization. Having a leader’s intent is the first step. Everyone knowing the leader’s intent one-level and even two-levels down is the next step and increases the impact exponentially. Shorter and memorable is important if you want your leader’s intent to cascade throughout the organization.

Obstacle

One challenge that leaders encounter is that their boss often doesn’t provide a leader’s intent. Even in the Army where it is part of the processes and culture it happens. For example, my boss didn’t publish his intent until we had been on the ground in Afghanistan for two months. I published mine five months earlier because I wanted my battalion to have my intent as we planned, deployed, and were in our first engagements on the ground. When my boss finally published his, I modified mine to align and nest with his. No matter what the environment or circumstance, don’t wait for your boss to publish their intent. Do the right thing, publish your intent, and empower your team to act with disciplined initiative in an evolving environment.

Conclusion

Providing a leader’s intent to sports teams, non-profits, and corporate groups will enhance your organization’s sense of empowerment, initiative, and adaptation as the environment changes and evolves. Want help on building your team’s leader’s intent? TFCG offers leader’s intent workshops in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina. Click on one of the buttons to start the conversation.