How to be an intentional leader: four traits for success

by Dave A. Jennings

Attaining a leadership position changes your professional priorities immediately. Job-specific skills that served you well in the past must now be combined with a new set of competencies. And rather than success being all about your accomplishments, you must now create the environment for others to achieve success.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to offer clear expectations about the new leadership role or a framework of the position responsibilities. Instead, they offer a position promotion with no direction, and they expect the new leader to learn on his or her own.

Such an approach sets the new leader up for failure. In order to give new leaders the best start possible, they need to know how to be intentional leaders so they can get better results from those they lead.

What is an intentional leader?
An intentional leader is someone who delivers results, builds relationships and increases capabilities, for these three factors encompass leadership success. Intentional leaders don’t sacrifice one factor for another; rather, they balance the three elements to set the company's or department’s direction and ensure his team works toward the goals.

Why is intentional leadership important? Because new leaders typically struggle with two challenges: knowing what their real job is and letting go of their old job. 

A leader’s real job is not to do the day-to-day work; it’s to help others be successful doing the work. So instead of getting rewarded for solving problems, leaders get rewarded for others solving problems. For some new leaders this is a difficult transition, because they can’t let go of being the expert. They enjoyed their old job and did it well, and now they must work in an ambiguous world where the rewards are not instant and where their success is based on the success of others.

When you learn how to become an intentional leader, though, these challenges quickly disappear. You step into your new leadership role more easily and attain results quickly. In order to build a high-performance work environment and lead more effectively, follow the guidelines for becoming an intentional leader.

Know your values
Your values are your operating principles. They are the beliefs, desires, and aspirations you bring to the company. Some common values include: family, honesty, results, teamwork, trust, integrity, innovation, etc. What values do you bring to your company? How do you let others know that you care about these issues? What do you do that shows your values to others?

Intentional leaders transform their espoused values into behavioral values. They walk the talk and give more than just lip service to the values they hold dear. Their words and their actions are in alignment. 

Intentional leaders also create an environment that allows each team member to express his or her values, and the leader support employees’ values in all that they do. This does not mean that the leader takes on every one of the teams’ values; rather, the leader encourages everyone’s values to show so there’s a respect among employees and a unified company spirit. 

When you feel comfortable living your values at work, you’ll be able to answer the question, “What is my purpose at this company at this time?” Once you can answer that question, you’ll discover an inner power that guides you toward leadership success.

State your direction
The direction relates to the company or department’s mission, vision, strategy, goals, tasks and priorities. Understanding this hierarchy is important, because as a leader you need to be clear on the big picture of where you are going, as well as the goals for each of your team members. If you lack clarity on any of these factors, you’re bound to have conflicts with other groups or within your own group.

Too often, leaders wait for others to give them direction. When this happens, there’s no innovation and nothing gets done. As an intentional leader, you must gather information and then take a risk of how to act upon your findings. Base your decision on feedback from upper management, other departments, clients and vendors.

Sometimes the risk will be small and other times it will be great. But when you take the chance and set the direction, you give your team members a clear focus with specific goals to work toward. That’s when the real results occur.

Create time to listen
While giving timely and respective feedback is absolutely critical to communication success, listening to the other person is the most important part of any communication exchange. To be an intentional leader, you must take the time to listen to your employees so you can uncover the real problem that may be lying underneath. In the process, you’ll show your employees that you value their input and workday contributions.

Many leaders struggle with listening because they believe the great myth of today’s business age: “I don’t have time.” However, intentional leaders know the reality: “Slower is faster.” If you really want to resolve problems, taking 10 or 15 minutes now to listen to the issue will save you hours in the long run. Why? Because if you allow people only a minute or two to give you the details, you’re going to miss the full story and won’t uncover the true dilemma. 

Become proficient at asking your people to“tell me more. When you truly hear what is going on in the organization, you’ll make better decisions and achieve greater results.

Set accountability standards
Accountability involves setting expectations, delegating a task, following up and then creating closure. Your feedback and communication with your team holds these four elements together.

As an intentional leader, your goal is to make sure people know what they’re supposed to do. You then create a follow-up schedule to be sure everyone is on track. Once your employees complete their tasks, allow them to tell their stories of the work they put in. If you doubt the importance of this step, ask yourself, “When was the last time someone listened to the effort I put into a project?”

People want to feel valued and they want to tell you about their triumphs and hard work. Finally, offer praise and recognition when due so everyone is motivated to tackle the next task.

Too often, delegating tasks becomes nothing more than dumping and micromanaging. But no one can perform adequately under those circumstances. Instead, your people need clear guidelines and deadlines, positive reinforcement and the freedom to do their jobs.

When you provide them those things, they’ll see “accountability” as a synonym for “personal excellence,” and they’ll want to contribute to the company’s success. At that point, you’ll have created a unified team that follows your direction and achieves results.

Lead today
Becoming an intentional leader is not an easy process. It requires both a mind shift and a skill shift. However, these simple principles can help make the transition more rewarding. Start today by knowing your values, stating your direction, creating time to listen and setting accountability standards. You’ll soon discover that these four traits set the framework for your company’s growth as well as your own future leadership success.

Dave Jennings, founder of Business Acumen Inc., offers executive coaching, consulting, and training in the areas of leadership, communications, and change management. He helps organizations build more effective teams and increase bottom-line results. Reach him at www.business-acumen.com or 1-.

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