Intention vs impact: what’s really going on?

Often, when I’m coaching teams and senior leaders, we talk about the regular mismatch between intention and impact. When they aren’t in alignment we see low trust, high anxiety, and poor performance.

Intention

Intention is driven by goals, desires, or beliefs. These beliefs can be positive (‘I’m doing this for the greater good’), or negative (‘I’m doing this because I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t’). It resides within the individual and is not always visible to others. While intentions are usually clear to the person holding them, they may not always translate clearly to others.

Impact

Impact refers to the actual effect or result that someone's words, actions, or decisions have on others. It’s observable and experienced by others, and can be positive, negative, or neutral, and may or may not land as intended. For example, even if someone's intention was to be funny, their joke might offend or upset someone, leading to a negative impact.

So, how might we diagnose a team in which intention and impact are out of sync? 

The first sign is that team members appear confused or make assumptions about each other’s motives. Questions are often asked about an individual’s intent (often to a third party). These questions often include the word ‘why’ or include a value judgement on a person’s behaviour:

‘I don’t understand why he’s responding like this.’

‘Why can’t she just behave better?’

‘Why aren’t they doing a better job of this?’

The second sign is that team members start to behave less honestly and straightforwardly. This may manifest in subtle withdrawal (‘I’m just not engaging with him any more’) or even resorting to deceit or unfair tactics, deliberately derailing or sabotaging the work of others (‘I must stop her at all costs!’). These behaviours are often reciprocated, leading to a downward spiral of decreasing trust over time.

A team operating like this will feel under increasing pressure, which leads to the third sign: symptoms of burnout, poor performance, and needing time off. As Patrick Lencioni states in his famous five dysfunctions of a team model, trust is the bedrock to any successful team and without it, productive challenge, commitment, accountability, and results, are all absent. 

Why is intent and impact so easily misaligned?

Most people have good intent. We are intrinsically motivated to do a great job and want to achieve this in a way that makes it enjoyable for us and those we work with. Which begs the question: why is intent and impact so easily misaligned? When I have a client that is finding a colleague’s behaviour difficult to deal with, I encourage them to do a few things:

1.     Assume the person’s intention is good and that their behaviour isn’t a personal attack. Reframing behaviour as well-intentioned, no matter how challenging it might be, allows us to look at others with a different perspective.

2.     Be curious, but instead of asking ‘why’ a person is behaving in the way they are, ask what’s going on for them. Is there an insecurity or a power dynamic? Are they operating from a place of fear?

3.     I ask how their own behaviour might be contributing to the situation. Have they withdrawn from the relationship or engaged in game playing? Are their own intentions and impact aligned?

The only behaviours we can control are our own, so the next step is to make change. We can talk to our colleagues about what we’re observing and get curious about their intentions, being clear where the impact doesn’t align. Is there something that’s not being said, and can they take a risk to call it out? We can also actively clarify our own intentions and leave less for others to assume.

Move your perspective

Next time you feel frustrated or defensive about someone else’s behaviour, follow the tips in this blog to move your perspective and get curious about intention. And if a colleague responds badly to something you do, check yourself and your own intentions – were they honourable, and were they clear?

We all have a responsibility to make our professional relationships work.

You may also enjoy reading my last insights article on emotional responses and status.

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