Choosing to become a great leader: the shift from instinctive to intentional

Great leadership is a conscious choice 

As leadership guru Jim Collins says, greatness is a matter of conscious choice. 

It needs to be conscious because most great leaders aren’t just born knowing how to be great leaders. Their natural talent propels them towards leadership but they need to figure out over time how to add knowledge and skill to their talent to help them get the best from others, nurture creativity and make organisations successful. 

It’s an ongoing learning journey, and one of the most significant, accelerating moments on that journey is when leaders make that shift into being more conscious: when they shift from instinctive to intentional. 

From instinctive to intentional 

Surely instinct is valuable in leadership though? 

Absolutely. Instinct is useful when it looks like valuable gut feel (“I just know we need to act now!”) or when it shows up in the natural talents you bring in flow to a moment that needs them.

But instinct alone can be too reactive and one-note for the complex challenges facing modern leaders: a more considered and varied approach is needed. Leaders need to make daily conscious choices in order to become great.

So the shift is about about using instinct when it’s helpful, but about learning to respond not just react. Learning to be more aware and conscious about your leadership choices rather than just reacting out of instinct and watching your results get more hit and miss as your seniority grows. 

So how can you help yourself become more intentional? Here are three ways:

1. Taking responsibility for your impact

The best leaders realise they always have a choice in how they behave and they turn that realisation into responsibility. They know their behaviour has a direct impact on the motivation and performance of those around them and they take responsibility for making their impact as empowering, inspiring, decisive etc as they can. 

Every time you hear yourself say something like “I just snap at him when he does that, I can’t help it” you’re choosing not to take responsibility for your impact. 

You can’t help being triggered into feeling certain ways in situations (threatened, annoyed…). But you can help what happens next. When you learn to circuit-break your instinctive reactions and consciously manage your emotions, thoughts and behaviour instead, that’s intentional leadership.

2. Being more self-aware

Self-awareness is invaluable fuel for the shift from instinctive to intentional leadership, because it gives such valuable data to guide that intentionality. 

What natural strengths do others see in me that I can bring to my leadership? 

How am I helping my team succeed and how am I accidentally blocking them?  

What assumptions am I carrying that are holding me back as a leader? 

These are just three of many questions you can ask yourself and others to gain the self-awareness that will help you learn to get better results.

This sounds so obvious, but as you get more senior you tend to get less praise, less feedback and sometimes people become afraid to tell you the truth. So it takes effort to unlock the kind of self-awareness that fuels real growth – but it’s an effort worth making to help you become more intentional.

3. Paying better attention to what’s going on around you

Intentional leaders pay attention to what’s going on around them. I mean, real attention. They choose to be present and alert to the signals and patterns around them.

They notice the guy in the corner screen who’s normally full of ideas but quiet today, and wonder why. They notice the patterns of team behaviour around them that are enabling or blocking creativity. They notice how others respond to them, how they seem to make others feel (One brilliant coaching client came to me because “I’ve noticed people seem to be afraid of me and I need to fix that.”)

You won’t necessarily have ready solutions for the things you notice. But by activating your curiosity, suspending your judgment and growing what psychologist Howard Gardner calls your “searchlight intelligence” you’ll gain better awareness of what needs attention and how to respond. And that will help you be more intentional.

Uncertain times need intentional leaders

Leading for creativity is hard in these uncertain times: it takes a broader, deeper set of qualities and skills than ever before.

So if you want to be the kind of great leader who can weather tough times with resilience, decision-make through extreme uncertainty and create the conditions for creativity around you, shifting from relying on instinct to making informed, conscious choices about how you show up will help.