Guiding principle: We will share our intentions early

A guiding principle I have for leadership teams I've led and often also for the entire organisation, once leaders are 'walking the talk', is 'We will share our intentions early'. Here's why.

Photo by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash

I’ve been part of a few organisations with an expectation of ‘no surprises’. In some ways, I felt this established some overly conservative environments, but I must admit it also established an expectation for proactive communication.

As I moved into roles where I was leading leaders of leaders and the effects of decisions in one area could have an outsized impact on others, I started introducing my variation which I felt emphasised the more positive and useful aspect:

‘We will share our intentions early’.

This post follows on from my more general post about using guiding principles:

Why this principle?

I have seen the power of ‘starting together’ in supporting alignment around work or organisational change. Any work and, in particular, change that could impact potential collaborators or beneficiaries will have additional friction to overcome, which is in some way proportional to the amount of time and information accrued between the time it was initiated and choosing to involve others. You can read more about this here:

Timing and starting together is important for successful change

A common challenge for leaders collaborating is timing. In an environment where each leader might have a few initiatives they are spearheading, they may not feel available to collaborate with others on initiatives lest it diminish progress on their priority.

This can be worsened when the leader operates in a hub-and-spoke manner with their direct reports. By this, I mean they primarily operate one-to-one with each direct report and less on shared communication and priority setting. The challenge this can present is:

• Each may have their partitioned agreements with the executive.

• Each has a different timescale and expectations of progress. These can act as barriers to alignment between team members as the timing and definitions of progress and success differ.

When initiatives are shared and substantial progress has been made—a common practice in many organisations I have observed—the feeling that collaboration is possible or welcomed is also lessened. The opportunity to plan time or discuss prioritisation so mutual support can be sequenced for mutual benefit is also reduced.

How can you enable this principle?

As I covered in my previous post about principles, a principle is only as valuable as its supporting mechanisms.

So, how might you support this principle in practice? In the section for paid subscribers I breakdown in more detail the way I have approached this in larger organisations where leaders of leaders existed and a more intentional approach to influencing, empowerment, decision-velocity and effective change was required:

• Communication of the principle.

• Visibility of work/change.

• Integrating with how decisions are made.

• Normalise sharing intent.

• When to apply this principle?

• Celebrate working this way.