Intent versus Impact
Last week, I had a chance to join a panel with a few other awesome people, hosted by Rise and Co Talent (thank you, ladies, for having me!).
One of the things I learned from another panelist: after a layoff/RIF (Reduction in Force), in some cases, 74% of employees reported that their productivity went down following the RIF. 74%!
Intent versus Impact
This led me to think about Intent versus Impact.
In the case of these layoffs, the Intent is to cut costs.
But the Impact is typically much greater —often in ways that we aren't able to easily predict or calculate up front.
As leaders, something we can do is to check-in with ourselves (and others) to see if our intent is aligned with our impact.
Our intent might be, as an executive, to pop in to the weekly team call to see how things are going and to provide support. Our impact might be unintentionally derailing the meeting.
Our intent might be to “make sure things are on track” through regular check-ins, but our impact might be that our team feels we are micro-managing.
Our intent might be to be open and responsive to market needs by remaining “open to possibilities,” but the impact might be what feels like a lack of strategy and lack of clarity to our team.
Typically speaking, our intent and our impact aren't going to line up perfectly.
But as leaders, we can work to bridge the gap.
Questions to Ponder
A few questions we can ask in order to do so:
How can I be easier to work with?
What impact did this decision have on you?
What impact will this decision have on you?
How can I be a better leader to you?
