As a leader in an environment that is unfavourably biased towards extraversion, as an introverted leader, intentional leadership is important.
There may be things you need to do as a leader which, because they are overstimulating, may drain your energy, making you feel like you want to retreat to recharge.
But, if you have a busy day ahead where you will be around lots of people and you need to be sociable, quick thinking, making small talk, and other activities that drain you of energy, you won’t be able to retreat. Intentional leadership will help you manage your energy levels and be at your optimal in the situations described.
If you do not practice intentional leadership, you may just end up constantly firefighting and being reactive to issues that arise, which makes your job more stressful. Always leading reactively, will have long-term negative consequences for you, your team, and your organisation. Some of these include:
- Always playing catch up – the constant reacting to situations and crises can leave you feel like you are always playing catch up. This makes you feel less in control and long-term it is stressful.
- Poor decision making – a perpetual state of firefighting as a leader can lead to poor quality decision making. Suppose your mind is constantly consumed with dealing with one issue after another and constantly ‘putting out fires’, without a clear mind. In that case, you are less likely to think rationally, negatively impacting the decisions that you make.
- A lack of strategic thinking – if you are always focused on addressing short-term problems, this does not give you the space to exercise your strategic thinking muscle. A lack of strategic thinking leads to unclear direction, struggling to achieve long-term goals, and an inability to adapt to changing environments.
- Poor team morale – working in an environment that is reactive also puts pressure on your teams and leads to poor morale. Poor morale leads to increased absenteeism, poor performance, and higher attrition rates. Which is costly to the organisation.
- A lack of trust in you as a leader – where there is constant firefighting and a lack of direction, it leads to a lack of trust in a leader from external stakeholders as well as employees.
- It can lead to burnout - the constant need to react to problems can create a stressful work environment for both yourself and those you lead. Over time, this stress can contribute to burnout, negatively impacting overall morale and productivity.
Intentional leadership enables you to be proactive in your leadership approach and plan and organise better, as well as being better for your overall well-being. If you have been constantly firefighting as a leader, you may find it difficult to switch to being an intentional leader.
You may not be able to see how you can break the cycle of reactiveness and be more proactive as a leader. If so, here are a few things that you can do to develop intentional leadership:
- Schedule thinking time in your calendar – weekly put time in your calendar to give yourself space to think, reflect, and plan. You may think that you don’t have time to do this, but giving yourself this space is an investment in you and will help you to increase your capacity. Protect this time just like you would any other meeting.
- Get clear on your purpose and goals – be clear about what your purpose is, the purpose of your team/department/organisation and your goals and objectives, and what is needed to achieve these. Be intentional in your approach to taking the action that is needed to achieve them.
- Self-leadership – before you can lead others, you need to be able to lead yourself and self-leadership is key, so be intentional about practising self-leadership. Develop your emotional intelligence so you also increase your self-awareness and develop empathy. Be able to self-regulate and be self-motivating, whilst practising self-care.
- Communicate clearly - develop strong communication skills to convey your intentions clearly. Listen actively to understand the perspectives of others.
- Encourage innovation – foster a culture of creativity and innovation in your teams. Listen to their ideas and suggestions and where appropriate, take them on board. Give them as much autonomy as possible. You will reap the rewards by doing so.
- Be a lifelong learner – stay curious and be committed to ongoing learning and personal growth. Seek feedback to identify areas that you need to work on.
Intentional leadership is important because it cultivates a purposeful and focused approach to decision-making, fostering a positive work environment. It also promotes adaptability, innovation, and effective communication, essential for navigating the complexities of today's dynamic business landscape. So, what can you do to be an intentional leader?
First published on LinkedIn.
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