Intent-Based Leadership in an Agile Environment

Leading a team is hard.

Leading a team is hard because it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page and working towards the same goal. A good leader needs to be able to effectively communicate goals and objectives to their team, as well as create an environment where everyone feels comfortable contributing their ideas. Leaders must be able to admit when they don’t know something, which can difficult for those who were once expected have all of the answers.

In the industrial age, employees were just cogs in a machine and had to do whatever their supervisors told them. No real thought was necessary behind the work. Workers showed up, did their tasks on the manufacturing line, and went home. This type of work forms the basis for how leaders lead today.

That may have been effective for factory-type work, but it’s anathema to thought-based work.

Especially in today’s post-industrial world, high-performing teams don’t want to be given commands to follow. Companies hire intelligent, experienced, resourceful employees and then expect them to just shut up and fall in line, oftentimes against the employees’ better judgment. Rather than trusting their employees, managers feel like they have to be constantly watching over employees’ shoulders, making sure the work being done is as the manager would do it. Employees are then given very little freedom or ability to express opinions – if they have any at all – and are expected to ‘follow orders’ and ‘do as they’re told’.

In the modern office environment, this thinking is outdated and dangerous for organizations. It creates an environment where employees are frustrated and unempowered. The true goal of any modern business should be to engage employees in the work that they do; instead of feeling like cogs in a machine, they should feel like valued members of their team who are given the freedom to think for themselves and contribute ideas . Even if (and especially if) those ideas go against what their manager thinks.

That’s where intent-based leadership comes in.

A good leader needs to be able to create teams that understand the intent of the mission, and don’t need (or want) constant direction to achieve success.

When the team understands the intent, they can make informed decisions. The people on the team can best make decisions about work that is closest to them.

It is leadership’s responsibility, therefore, to give teams enough competence and clarity around the vision and intent in order for the team members to make the best decision they can.

Take a serious look at your leadership style.

Do you hire intelligent people for thought-based work only to tell them exactly how to do their jobs?

Some signs of command and control management:

• You coax, goad, or influence employees to do the things you think are most important
• You “encourage” them to do things the way you think they should be
• If there is any discussion around the work, you shut it down, especially if you think people are wrong
• You frequently ask for status updates, review every aspect of the work
• You expect the team to follow orders, no matter what
• Telling your team what to do rather than asking them their opinion
• Giving your team members minuscule detail-level feedback on the work they did
• Not trusting your employees to make the right decisions
• Thinking that you know what’s best for your company or project no matter what other people tell you

Be honest. How many of these can you identify with (even if you can’t admit it out loud)? You’re doing your thought-based teams a disservice. And you’re making it harder on yourself by taking on the burden of doing everyone’s jobs. Because even if you think others are doing the work, if you’re in a command and control mindset, you may as well just do the work for them.

An intent-based leadership model creates a team that understands intent and has the competence and clarity to follow through.

These leaders inspire innovation and continuous improvement. They do this by giving the team the space to use their intelligence and knowledge of the work to make the best possible decisions. They encourage team members to speak up, disagree, and experiment. Once the team has the big picture, they can use their hands-on knowledge along with their understanding of the vision and intent to create something that the leadership team may have never even dreamed as a possibility.

So how do you start?

Listen First

Many leaders have a habit of speaking first and listening later. Leaders using intent-based leadership must give the pause and space for their teams to speak first. Leaders influence teams with what they say, or don’t say, and how they say it.

This can be an extremely difficult habit to develop. Speaking first is how leaders are usually taught to lead, directing the conversation. They’re told to guide the team to the outcome that the leader thinks is most important.

By listening first, you may hear something completely unexpected from your team. They may come up with a brilliant solution that you would’ve never thought of in a million years. By allowing them the space and support to speak first, you’ve avoided influencing them.

Actually Listen

Everyone in our society today is always in such a hurry that when we have conversations, we’re often just waiting for our turn to speak, and not really listening. You assume you know what the person is going to say next, so you’re concentrating on how you will respond, instead of deeply listening to what they’re saying.

The Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) has done the research and identified three levels of listening:

Level 1: Internal Listening (Focused on Self)

This level of listening is focused internally – how will you react to what the person you’re listening to is saying? You’re probably only half-listening, assuming you know what the speaker is talking about and plotting your next move. Or you’ve partially tuned out and are thinking about something totally unrelated – what’s for dinner? What meeting do I have to go to next? Why are the neighbor’s dogs always barking when you have meetings?

This type of listening is very surface level – and often noticeable by your conversation partner. People can tell when you aren’t totally engaged and it may lead them to believe you aren’t interested in what they’re saying and cause them to shut down. In striving for intent-based leadership, Internal Listening

Level 2: Focused Listening (Focused on Other)

This level is focused much more deeply and singularly on the person to whom you are listening. You are really absorbing every word without thinking ahead or predicting what they will say next. You are not focused on what your response will be, but instead are focused on understanding. Deep listening will help you to see the context and background for the speaker and have a more in-depth understanding of what they’re saying.

These days, with all the distractions and the fast pace of life, focused listening can be difficult to concentrate on. It’s almost like meditation – you have to block out all other external and internal information and truly focus on the words being said. If you’re deep listening to someone and your mind starts to wander, try to be aware of that and refocus yourself.

The speaker will most likely notice that you are deeply invested in what they’re saying and appreciate your attentiveness. They will also understand if, after they’re finished speaking, you need to pause to determine how you want to respond. Because you weren’t thinking ahead about what you want to say, you may need to collect your own thoughts before responding. The speaker is saying something you are deeply invested in.

As a leader, it’s important that the team feels like you listen when they speak. Practicing focused listening with your team, customers, and fellow leaders can make a huge impact on how the relationship functions. Intent-based leadership is about creating an environment of trust within the team,

When you focus on the speaker and understand their perspective, they feel seen and heard. This leads to a greater sense of trust in your relationship, which will strengthen your working relationship with them going forward.

Level 3: Global Listening (Focused on Purpose)

This is the deepest level of listening. You are intensely focused on the speaker, but your mind is not just processing what they are saying – you’re also picking up on everything else around them. You aren’t only hearing their words, but you’re understanding why they are saying what they are saying and how it fits into the bigger picture of who they are as a person. And you are recognizing what they are not saying; picking up on the vibe of a conversation, so to speak, even if nothing explicit is even being said.

For example, a person may have a tendency to speak quickly when they feel threatened or insecure. Or they might be talking slowly because they’re trying not to cry. You can pick up on all of these subtle clues and nuances of how their speaking style changes, without them even saying anything, along with the context of the words they are saying.

For intent-based leadership, global listening is key – it will allow you to understand your team and customers as people, as opposed to just a group of people that you lead. Their goals and motivations don’t have to be guesswork for you, because you will understand their underlying human drivers as well as what they need from the relationship with your company.

If your team feels as if you listen on a deep level, they will be more engaged and feel heard. It will help them to build their trust in you, which will lead to a more effective team working environment overall.

Be Aware of the Words You Use

Not only should you be aware of the words you use, but you should also be aware of how those words are received. Different groups may perceive words differently.

One client I worked with kept using the term “Agile team” to talk about forming new teams. In reality, this company was starting a new project and adding existing employees to the teams on the project. Employees began to associate the term “Agile team” to just mean more work and didn’t really understand what agile was, or be open to learning about it.

It wasn’t that they were “agile teams”, they were project teams that happened to be using agile. Calling them “agile teams” was creating the impression that these teams were just extra duties. It also implied that the team member wasn’t fully committed or responsible for the work, and that the work itself may have even been temporary, none of which was true.

I coached the company to be aware of how they were talking about these teams. I encouraged them to start calling them by their actual team function, such as the “E-commerce team”, and so on. In addition to working to better define the team roles within the product, it helped the team members to understand that working on these teams was a part of their job function and not ‘something extra’.

Focus on giving information, not instructions

Controlling, coercive language is no longer the language of the workplace in our world of thought workers. Demanding something get done or be done in a certain way will only discourage your team and stifle healthy conversation.

Instead of “Finish those reports by Friday,” say, “Accounting needs those reports by Friday to close out the month”. By giving the team member more context for the work, that accounting needs to close out the month, they understand the urgency of the work and why it’s being asked of them.

Invite diverging opinions

Teams thrive on diversity, and that diversity allows for different perspectives, ideas, and ways of thinking.

When discussing ideas with the team, encourage team members to speak up. Ask open-ended questions, and then be comfortable sitting in silence for a few beats to allow team members to process their thoughts. Don’t jump in with your opinion until everyone else has had a chance to say theirs. Encourage the quieter team members to participate, but don’t force them if they aren’t forthcoming.

Try to find an anonymous way for the team to submit their ideas. And make sure it’s truly anonymous. If your team finds out you said it was anonymous and it wasn’t, their trust in you will be broken. Intent-based leadership relies on trust and a safe environment for teams.

Use questions to your advantage

I don’t mean to interrogate your team. This isn’t Law and Order.

Use open-ended, non-leading questions to prompt your team to think through a problem. Avoid leading questions – “Do we think this should be green?” “What do we think about adding a button here?” Don’t ask questions where you have a specific answer you’re looking for.

Questions like “How long will it take?” are less informative than “What do you think our timeline will look like?” which allows your team to self-reflect, instead of just responding with the first number that comes to mind. Intent-based leadership encourages teams to think for themselves, so be aware of prompting the answers you think you’re looking for.

Choose your vocabulary intentionally

Saying the phrase “That’s not what I’m thinking” is far more discouraging than “I think we can do this differently”. The first is almost disparaging; cutting down what was suggested instead of opening up the conversation to invite discussion.

You might also consider using the ‘ask’ technique. “How about we try it this way” instead of saying “Do it this way.”

Admit What You Don’t Know

In intent-based leadership, you should be striving to hire the best qualified, smartest people for the roles on your team. Because you’re investing in the best of the best, you should work to employ them to their full potential.

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

Unknown

It can be terrifying to be in a leadership position and admit you don’t know something, especially if that is not how you’ve worked in the past. You feel like your team is depending on you to have all the answers and so you BS your way through something you don’t really understand – and it shows. The team loses confidence and you feel like an idiot.

Instead of ‘faking it till you make it’, as a leader you should be leading by example and showing your team that it’s okay to not know something. Not only is it okay, but it shows a willingness to be vulnerable and an openness to options you may have not considered before.

And even if you do know, or think you know, the answer? It can be better to pretend you don’t in order to open the floor for discussion. Come in to a discussion guns blazing, convinced that your way is the right (and only) way, and it will diverging opinions (remember we talked about those before?) and stifles creativity on a team. You could be missing out on an even better option because your team has the on-the-ground information needed to make informed choices.

Intent-based leadership is going to feel weird

Stepping back, listening deeply, and inviting dissent may not come naturally at first. You may have been taught a much different, more aggressive form of leadership in the past. And I’d challenge you – how has that type of leadership worked out for you so far?

Work to make sure your team is informed about your goals and that they have the clarity and the competence to understand them,. Create an environment that’s open to diverging opinions and discussion. Your team will soon open up and you’ll find better solutions, provide more value to your customers, and build a stronger culture in your business.

So instead of saying “that’s not what I’m thinking” try “tell me more about that.”

Acknowledge when you’re wrong and ask how the team can help solve it next time.

Intent-based leadership is about trusting your team to make the best decision possible because you’ve supplied them with the tools they need to be successful.

Works Cited

Inno-Versity Presents: Greatness by David Marquet

Intent-Based Leadership International

3 Levels of Listening: When to Think, When to Focus, and When to Step Back