Leadership - Living and Leading with Intention

I have been thinking a lot about leadership lately.  I have come up with lots of questions that I hope to answer over the next ten weeks as I go through the Leadership Impact Forum training (LIFT).  (Interested in learning more about LIFt?  Check it out here:  https://www.kellyjmobeck.com/lift.html.)

The list below is a sample of a few of the questions that have been chasing each other around in my head:

·         What does it mean to lead? 

·         Why is it important to lead? 

·         What comes next for me in my leadership journey? 

·         What does it take to be a successful leader?

That last one feels particularly important to me right now.  In pondering these questions, I keep coming back to intentionality.  No surprise there – right?  Obviously, intentionality is often top of mind for me since I named my business Intentionally Me!  Of course, the fact that it’s top of mind does not necessarily mean that I’m always good at being intentional. 

In fact, quite the opposite is true sometimes.  I get bogged down in the shoulds and musts, lost in the details, and swamped by the what ifs and if onlys.  If I’m lucky I catch myself quickly and get out of the muck and back onto firm ground.  Other times it might take me a while, and still other times it might actually take a good swift kick in the rear from the universe.  You know what I’m talking about right?

I digress.  I forgot – this post isn’t about me – it’s about leadership.  (Not very intentional of me, right?  I guess I proved my own point.) 

Intentionality

So, what is intentionality?  According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu/entries/intentionality/, 2019), Intentionality is the power of minds and mental states to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs.  Is this not a lovely definition? 

You might be wondering; how do I know when I’m not being intentional?  You know you’re not being intentional when you get caught up in the busy pace of life and lose sight of what’s truly important. Unfortunately, it can be easy to get caught up even when life is relatively sane.  Add to that things like COVID, political tension, racial injustice and inequality – well, it might start to feel like we have no choice, of course we’re going to get caught up with all that’s going on around us.  

But the truth is we have choices, and we can exercise those choices. We can choose to live and lead with intention. We can ask questions, find answers, and we can decide.  We don’t have to default to the status quo.  There are three things we can do to support our choice to live and lead intentionally: 1) identify our values; 2) act with agency; and 3) optimize our relationships.

Values

If we want to use the “power of our minds and mental states to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties, and states of affairs” the first thing that we need to do is to get in touch with our values.  If we aren’t clear on what our values are, we won’t be able to focus our mind and mental state – we won’t be able to be intentional.

Values are personal, deeply held principles or ideas that guide our thoughts and actions and define who we are at our core.  The first step to living intentionally is to take time to reflect on what you value most. Examples of some commonly held values include honesty, justice, efficiency, innovation, and happiness; however, this is just a small sampling of values.  (If you’d like a list of values to get you started on this exercise please email me at alexis@intentionallyme.org and I’ll send you a worksheet.)

I strongly recommend that you write a list of your values – maybe even take the time to develop personal values statements – and keep them in a place where you can easily see them.  It’s also helpful to share your values with others – the more you think about and talk about your values the clearer they will become for you and the easier it will be to incorporate them into all aspects of your life.  It is important to note here that as humans we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, while others will judge us by our behaviors.  Living with intention requires that we ensure that our behaviors are in line with our values.

Acting with Agency

Instead of standing back and letting life live us, we can live intentionally by choosing how we spend our time and invest our energy.  We can take control of our present and our future.  We can shape our lives, our jobs, our relationships, and our leadership style.  We can act with agency!

Acting with agency requires us to first identify our goals and then actively pursue those experiences, skills, behaviors, and relationships that will position us for success.  Determining who we want to show up as each day and in each area of our life, and then identifying the actions and behaviors that will support our ability to show up that way will also contribute to our success.  By making a commitment to small shifts that take us towards our goals we’ll turn those small shifts into habits which will then become our reality. 

Some examples of this might include identifying a goal of exercising every morning and then setting an intention to go to bed at a certain hour so that you can wake up 30 minutes earlier and exercise before getting ready for work.  Or identifying a goal of returning to school to get a PhD.  In this case, you might set the intention to research on-line to find the best schools in your area of expertise and contacting each one to speak with an enrollment counselor.  Acting with agency requires that we identify what we want and then actively and intentionally move towards that thing.

Optimizing Relationships

Healthy, productive relationships are critical in all areas of our lives and healthy relationships require intentional action and commitment to both build and maintain them.  We can optimize our relationships by first understanding ourselves and then collaborating with others in a way that complements our strengths and diminishes our challenges. 

Relationships are two-sided; however, if our goal is to optimize our relationships, we need to first focus on what we put into the equation. We need to consider how we regulate and manage our emotions, moderate our responses, express our values, and the general communication skills we practice with others.  This brings us back to the choices we make – specifically who we choose to show up as each day and in each area of our life.

Living and Leading with Intention

Now you know three of the things that you can choose to look at to ensure that you are living and leading with intention – identifying your values, acting with agency, and optimizing your relationships.  Are you ready to choose who you show up as each day?  To take ownership for your choices and become the leader you were meant to be? Of course, you are!  You would never settle for anything less than living your best life. 

If you’d like a little support as you walk through this process feel free to email me to set up an introductory coaching call at alexis@intentionallyme.org.