10 Strategies to Lead with Powerful Intention in 2020

This new year won't be new much longer! It's not too late, though, to set powerful intentions for 2020. But with so many priorities competing for your attention, how do you decide what your intentions should be? Consider focusing on one (or more) of these leadership strategies that have consistently made a difference for my executive coaching clients.

1. Live with purpose. Let your passion and personal priorities guide you.

2. Always take the high road. One negative, memorable moment has a long shelf life — especially the higher you move up the ladder. Find an outlet outside work to vent.

3. Align your words and actions. When they are out of sync, your actions will always speak louder. You can say that you know how to prioritize or that you value work/life balance, but what are you modeling?

4. Pay attention to relationships just as much as results. People care about what you do and how you do it.

5. Demonstrate your positive intent through your behavior. You can have the best intentions or results in the world. If people consistently have challenging experiences with you, neither of those things will matter to them.

6. Invest time to network. Networking is part of your job, not something you do if you have spare time. It gives you access to important resources to do your job and manage your career.

7. Stay humble but tastefully toot your own horn. It will help others understand and tap into your strengths.

8. Celebrate success even if you think you are “just doing your job.” It will boost your energy and that of the people around you.

9. Strategically integrate self-care into your life. Self-care isn’t a sign of weakness or just “nice to have.” The best leaders know it is key to high performance and satisfaction. Pay attention to what your body, not just your mind, is telling you.

10. Give yourself that empathy that you so freely give to others. You are doing the best you can with where you are in your life.

Which one of these leadership strategies will you to focus on right now? How will you keep it front and center this week?

Looking for more leadership advice and inspiration? From corporate programs to coaching to books and audio, you'll find tools on my website tailored to your needs.

Connecting the Dots for Others

There's one area that I always work on with my clients that they never realize they need to work on. It doesn’t come up in our initial discussions about their coaching goals, but it does affect their ability to truly lead with impact and build a strong leadership brand.

Let me explain. Usually, when I ask leaders about the most critical things they want to accomplish from a business standpoint, they rattle off a list of things. The same thing happens when I ask about their teams. Very few of them can easily articulate the two or three areas of focus that guide everything they do.

For example, I have a client who has the remarkable ability to dive into a completely new area of responsibility, learn what she needs to, and restructure the work to maximize results. On top of that, she empowers and develops her team to step up and sustain the performance. She has done this time and again, and can give me countless examples. Through our work together, she has come to realize that her primary focus is on creating sustainable value while minimizing risk for the business and developing future leaders. This is her beacon that guides everything she does.

By realizing this (i.e., Connecting the Dots for herself), she can now articulate a consistent message about her focus and intent. This provides tremendous value because she can give others a way to interpret what she says and does by constantly framing her actions and decisions in the context of her areas of focus.

Remember that others will draw conclusions about what you say and do using their own filters — and they may take away something different than you intend. Let me give you an example to further explain. I have another client (let’s call her Michelle) who has a strong focus on supporting her team. This means that Michelle invests considerable time coaching her new hires, but she also recognizes the need to get her employees working independently without her day-to-day guidance.

So she was surprised at her new hire’s frustration when she scaled back her one- on-one time with him. Michelle knew that pulling back was the best support she could give him because it would serve him well in the long run. However, her employee didn’t realize what she was doing. He didn’t Connect the Dots in the same way Michelle thought he would. In fact, he had drawn the opposite conclusion. By explaining her primary focus, Michelle helped him understand that she was supporting him and how. He now has a way to interpret her actions and understand her expectations.

Remember that Connecting the Dots for others is not a “once and you’re done” exercise. You have to do it again and again — and you can’t do it unless you have Connected the Dots for yourself. So take advantage of the unique opportunity you have to provide a framework to give others insight into what you think is important, what success looks like, and what will guide your decisions. It will also create a stronger sense of conviction for you — about what you want to accomplish, how you will get there, and what you want to be known for as a leader.