Every day, politicians, business people and others make statements that speak about good intentions. They mark out these intentions with statements which usually include the phrase “we are committed to”. What they mean is that they will try their best to do whatever it is that they are committed to. Most of the time, this won’t be enough.

From our very beginnings, one of the underlying philosophies of Global Leadership Foundation has been that we will always act with ‘intent’, not ‘intention’. There is a subtle but significant difference.

Every day, Malcolm and I get in touch with each other and share our intent for the day. We do this through sharing how we want to be, or be seen, for the day. So, for instance, if I am facilitating I might say that my intent is to be ‘insightful’, or ‘engaging’, or ‘inspiring’. If I’m working in the office my intent might be something like ‘focused’, or ‘calm’, or ‘clear’.

If I were stating an intention in these cases it would be quite different. The intention for a workshop might be to get receive effective evaluation scores, or to finish on time. The intention in the office might be to finish my to-do list, or complete a particular project.

Can you see the difference?

Where stating an intention would be all about saying what I want to do, using intent is all about saying how I want to be. Intention is largely about hope; it’s about ‘try’ and ‘should’ and ‘might’. Intent is much stronger. It’s about a state of mind; it’s about establishing a designated quality of behaviour, which in turn creates appropriate actions consistent with that quality.

Intent can be really powerful, whether for a day, a year, a decade or even longer.

On a small scale, it is quite common for Malcolm and myself to share our intent of being ‘seamless’ when facilitating a workshop together. We don’t communicate this intent publicly with the workshop participants, yet often someone will come up to us, unprompted, during the day and comment on how seamlessly we work together – using that exact word. The same thing often happens when we share an intent to be ‘collaborative’.

On a longer-term scale, it is intent that keeps our organisation on track, year after year. When we set up Global Leadership Foundation our intent was three-fold: to be self-aware, collaborative and stewards for community (environment, social, local and global). This intent has constantly guided our decision making and presented opportunities which are in tune with how we want our organisation to be.

We also use the concept of intent with the leaders who work with us.

A very standard question of a leader would be “what do you want to achieve [i.e., to do]” to which the response is usually something to do with following a strategic direction or achieving budget or implementing the business plan.

We ask a different question: “How do you want to be or be seen?” The answers provide a completely different way of being. They typically revolve around words like ‘confident’, ‘inspiring’ or ‘engaging’ – words, and intent, that can completely change the way a leader presents and works with others.

Working with intent, rather than intention, can underpin the way you approach a day, a task or even a career.

In my next post, I will talk about how you can make this concept of intent work for you.