Be Intentional: Three Actions Every Team Leader Should Take
Part of my leadership philosophy is to be intentional with everything I do. My goal is to be present as a leader, show up physically and mentally, and to put forth action that truly brings value to those that I am serving.
Being an intentional leader helps you build credibility, seen as reliable and trustworthy. I want my name to align with those traits as a leader and a person within everything I do.
What I want to do is share a few thoughts that prepare me to be intentionally present with my leadership. I recently did a video and podcast episode on this subject titled “Be Intentional.” I’ll dive deeper into that concept in this article, but I would love for you to check them below and let me know your thoughts!
Before we dive into actions around being an intentional leader, I want to call out a reality that we could face in our leadership.
Being an intentional practitioner can be hard.
Why? Our focus could solely be on the work, not the staff. By being caught up with accomplishing a task, we miss the people involved with the work. This perspective risks seeing others as a cog in a wheel.
It’s also hard being intentional when spread across various responsibilities. We scatter our attention on other items that have no relation to those impacted. Or worse, we could over promise and under deliver because we are trying to be all things to all people.
We want to bring value to those we lead. Practicing intentionality helps keep our attention in tune to the needs and the people within our teams.
So how can we be an intentional leader in this space? What are some tactics you can use to best support and serve your team well?
Side note: there are way more than three actions we all can do towards being intentional leaders. But these three below are my favorite and can be implement today!
Listen
Listening is a key, fundamental attribute to have in any space that you’re involved in. We don’t want to listen just to respond with our own thoughts. Rather, we should intently listen to hear the other person’s perspective.
We need to hear other people’s thoughts to understand what’s going on in their world to better serve them.
I remember when I started out “professionally” leading people, I wanted to institute a change in our team’s workflow because I saw it as inefficient. There was some truth to my perspective - part of the process was broken and needed to change. However, was the timing of change appropriate? Did I understand how it would affect upstream and downstream interactions? Was there key information missing from my plan that would derail the overall goal?
All great questions, but didn’t consider them. I shared the change, met with immediate pushback and quickly retracted to avoid any more damage.
Afterwards, I talked with a few senior team members to understand what happened. It boiled down to my change wasn’t the right problem to solve. A deeper level issue that needed attention first and would have brought value to the initiative I wanted to implement.
From then on, I made it a point to sit in my team areas and listen in to their conversations. The goal was to hear what’s truly going on rather than make assumptions based on my vantage point of situations.
The action of listening with intent helped increase engagement and collaboration between teams and gave me more understanding as a leader to support them well.
Connect
Another leadership lesson I quickly realized is that people want someone that is relatable and engaging. The team wanted a leader to be more than a strong voice, full of tweetable quotes, and only interacts with them at a high-level.
To be real, I so want to be that leader! I still do! I mean, how cool is it to have everything you say transferred into an inspiring graphic, shared over a million times on social media?!
One day…
But today, I see the value in using my presence and listening skills to engage those that I am leading so they can be effective. I have to connect with my staff and anyone that I am interacting with because they are more than a staff member accomplishing a task.
As I consider my spaces of influence, I’ve been intentional by connecting with people to understand their background and where they come from just getting to know them.
The value here is that we are building a relationship that is deeper than a transaction. A relationship that moves beyond the surface or what we can do for each other. Intentional connection provides value to one another and highlights the humanity we all share.
It’s what helps build people and communities to come together.
It’s what helps people feel like they belong.
And leaders have a strong role to play in developing this engagement.
Follow Through
At the end of a meeting earlier this year, one of my direct reports came up to me and said “hey, I really appreciate the fact that you followed through with an action that you said you would do.”
I express gratitude in that moment.
There is value in accomplishing a task that directly aligns with a team members objective. It shows that through listening and connecting, you could find an opportunity to serve them directly that meets their needs and advance the goals of the team.
One mantra that I carry with me from high school football is “be where you are supposed to be, do what you are supposed to do.”
When I think about being an intentional leader, I think about how valuable it is that I carry out the tasks they have assigned me to complete. In addition, these tasks should serve a greater purpose outside of just being done. Such as removing a barrier, equipping others, or maximizing effectiveness.
Following through with intent helps build a strong culture and enhances the bond of the team.
Putting it all together
Being an impactful, effective leader requires us to be intentional with our presence. The desire is for our leadership to engage, equip and encourage others to be effective in their work. The tone we set leading our teams creates helps shape these outcomes and culture we want to foster.
By practicing those three things in my leadership, I found tremendous growth in my development and built stronger relationships with those that I’m connecting with.
Being intentionally present allows the ability to meet the immediate need while engaging a deeper opportunity that would transform the experience for our team members.
If we practice those empathetic skills, effective management skills, and leadership skills in every space, how much more effective would we be as leaders?
How much more growth would we see in our communities and team culture?
How much more support would our team feel if we took intentional steps of listening, connecting, and following through?
Question and Action
Here a few questions I would love for you to think through:
How can you be a better listener in meetings?
How can you connect with people deeply?
How can you make sure you’re following through the actions you’ve set for yourself or for others?
As a call to action, take the one step towards being an intentional leader by listening to understand a staff member’s needs.
Thanks for reading! Share your response in the comments!
Raymond White loves to engage, equip, and encourage emerging leaders and their efforts to develop thriving teams. You can follow him on Instagram and Threads!
