Leaders - Intent versus Impact

There are many times when I have had the right intent but my impact hasn't been what I anticipated. There have also been many times when I haven't really thought about my intent and that's led to an unexpected impact - good and bad.

Sometimes, the stars align and what I meant to happen actually did. Hurray. If that 'hurray' moment isn't happening often enough then we are not just letting ourselves down, we're also disappointing those around us who deserve and expect better.

People have high expectations of leaders and we probably all have high expectations of ourselves too; so when we fail, get it wrong or just create an unintentional impact then that is felt far more by the people around us than we really appreciate.

What's so hard about aligning our intention to our impact?

I think there are a number of excuses that we default to, let's see if any of these are familiar:

"I didn't mean for that to happen" - thoughtless

"There wasn't time for me to explain" - deluded

"He/She needs to figure it out for themselves" - impatient

"I had to get to a meeting" - in the wrong job

Okay, maybe you're not in the wrong job, you were just busy/having a bad day/worried/distracted or all of those things. However, by forgetting about the impact your response could have you have potentially caused harm to another person and your reputation. Yet we all have those people who bring out the worst in us, the ones who swing by our desk without fail at the time we are under the most pressure and they don't seem to pick up the vibes we're giving off. Surely, we think, they can see that now is not the right time; but that's not what they're thinking. They're thinking there's an opportunity to speak to you and they want to take it. Same thing applies to the moment you see a particular name come up on your phone and you really, really want to send it to voicemail.

Don't do it. Don't brush them off. Take a moment, a deep breath if you need it and get your intent syncing up with your impact. You know that it doesn't have to take long, you can smile and suggest the person walks with you to your next meeting or on the phone smile as you answer and give them a little time or set up a call time - nicely.

Your intent is less important than your impact. It's brutal but true.

My favourite thought process, one that I come back to all the time is that I can't talk my way out of what I behave my way into. Nobody can. It's our behaviour that people remember. It's how you made them feel that lingers.

Think about your impact today.