Leadership Is a Mindset: Five Proven Strategies to Lead With Intention

Leadership is a mindset you practice and nurture every day. In this episode, I share the five points of leadership that matter most and how intention shapes your influence.

In this episode:

• How self-leadership sets the foundation for everything else
• Ways to strengthen credibility and communication in relationships
• How to scale culture and decision-making across an organization
• Why generative leadership creates an impact that outlasts you

Chapters

• 0:00 Leadership as Practice, Not Destination
• 1:40 Self-Leadership: The Foundation
• 2:40 Relational Leadership: Building Connections
• 4:37 Team Leadership: Creating Alignment
• 7:40 Organizational Leadership: Enabling Others
• 9:55 Generative Leadership: Creating Lasting Impact
• 11:15 Leading with Intention
• 13:25 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey there, I'm Jill Griffin and this is the Career Refresh. Today I want to talk to you about leadership, and leadership is often talked about, especially now, in a time when we are so desperate for strong leaders, and I think people believe that leadership is like a destination, that once you get the title, once you get to this certain opportunity, it's like ta-da, now you're a leader and maybe that might be how it plays out for you. But I think the way I see it is that it's not necessarily about destination or that title, but it's really about a practice and a mindset that you get the opportunity to nurture throughout your career, and it's something that you're going to show up for, be intentional about, and you're going to be thinking through the various opportunities and challenges that pose themselves to you in the workplace right. So it's not linear, and some days you're going to feel like you've got it, it's figured out. Other days you are circling back, you're learning again and you are adjusting, and that's not failure, it's growth. And some people might say it's a failure, and listen, failures happen. I like to look at it now as a way in which that that's a way it's not going to work and we think this through and how are we going to approach this differently so that the next time we're in this situation, we're able to learn from it? Right, that's the growth mindset. I like to think of leadership as situational points or vantage points. Right, it's not about climbing a level, it's understanding that you may move between your role, your environment, your industry, your organization, all based on your personal growth. So let's talk them through.

Speaker 1: 1:44

The first one that I think is best labeled as self-leadership. Right, this is where it begins. This is the inner work. This is owning your mindset, your presence, your outcome. It's less about reacting and more about observing yourself over time. How do you respond when things start to go a little bit sideways or not go the way you had planned? How do you talk to yourself in those moments? How do you respond when things start to go a little bit sideways or not go the way you had planned? How do you talk to yourself in those moments? How do you find equanimity, right? And that really meaning that, whether you get a $10,000 bonus or a $10,000 bill, you're sort of like all right, you know, I'm still good. All right, this sucks and I'm still good. That's what we mean by equanimity in this case. So how do you talk through yourselves in those moments? You can't expect to lead others with clarity if you don't first lead yourself with clarity. And that means again setting boundaries, your non-negotiables, managing your energy and really deciding what matters most to you. That's the first one.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Second one is the relational leadership. You've gotten to a point where you're starting to understand the footing, the parameters, the swim lanes for which you're working within, within the role that you're in, and it becomes about connections. The relationships is where you're generating your leadership and this is where you're getting your leadership also tested. So this is not about being just a great communicator, although that's really important. It's how do you communicate when you're in a state of what I like to call halt, which is the hungry, angry, lonely, tired. Those are the moments that can reveal a lot. Those are the moments when everybody's coming at you, your team is feeling demotivated and is looking for guidance, someone just cooked fish in the microwave, or you're working from home and you're feeling really frustrated about stuff that's going on around you at the same time trying to show up. And how are you showing up in those moments? As you are relating and in community and collaboration with others. So relational relationship is about trust, consistency, empathy. It's not just the soft feel good, which, of course, is important, because we're human and we want more humanity in our relationships and the exchanges we're in. But what in the real day-to-day listening? How are we listening, clarifying and respecting other people's perspectives and creating room for them? I often see that as people are getting promoted up, they think that it's all about making sure they state their case and their point of view is heard, and it's important to be able to shape that. But leadership in this level is also about creating space for others. It's also making sure that you're not stepping on people and meaning that you're creating space for others. You're finding the right opportunities to draw them out and say you know, hey, jill, what are your thoughts on this? That you're creating space that others can look to you and be led by you. And that's the second one. So again we have first is self-leadership. Second is relational leadership. So probably you can guess what. The third one is Team leadership. This is where it starts to get bigger. You're aligning a group of people towards a shared goals.

Speaker 1: 4:48

You know, I once worked on a team that was completely stacked with talent. It was some of the most talented people I've ever had a chance to work with and on paper we were absolutely a dream team. But after a few reorgs and some new talent coming in, talent getting moved, people leaving and some new talent coming in, talent getting moved, people leaving Not really a lot of clarity as to where we were going the team started to become fractured, frustrated. They started to become, you know, a lot of that fun and sparkle and the inspiration we had from like we're going to do this together was starting to fade a bit. It was in pockets, but it wasn't that strong and things shifted when it wasn't. There wasn't a strategy to document and a path forward to tell us where we're going.

Speaker 1: 5:36

So our senior leader stood up and said we're going to all get together and we're going to have a little conversation about this, and everyone was sort of thinking what is going to happen in this meeting and this is something I actually want to be a part of. So it started with that leader saying you know what? Here's where I'm going to do better and here's what I'm going to start doing, here's what I'm going to stop doing and this is what I need from you. Here's what I've been doing that will contribute to the value of you know the end goal of the organization. And then stopped talking and then said, okay, who's next? And again, very unsettling at first, as you were looking around the room and then, little by little, each person took up that same track and said, okay, here's where I'm going to do better and here's what I need from you and here's what I commit to.

Speaker 1: 6:23

What happened is you started to have a space where honesty was created. People were showing vulnerability, sort of in the Brene Brown kind of way not in the all. Let me show all my insides and my small intestines on the table and making sure that everybody is following and seeing what I'm talking about. It wasn't about like oversharing as part of vulnerability, but really saying like this is when I'm at my best and when you're not clear with me in what you want or you only do a drive by my workstation and I actually would prefer it in writing. Right, people getting clear in what they wanted is really how the team started to shift. Within a few weeks, I'm going to say you started to see people were having fun again, they were doing their job. We were creating good work.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Clients even commented on like there seems to be a shift in the team. They seem to like each other and that's the power of team leadership. It's like, how do you think about psychological safety, accountability, alignment, community and how are people coming together and everyone on a team is accountable for that, but it gets set by the leader, right? That idea that the fish stinks, you know, rots from the head right. The fish stinks, you know, rots from the head right. You want to make sure that who you are as a leader of a team and that you're aligning to your own values and goals those that align with your organizations and really creating space for the team to also take accountability of their behavior and their actions and inactions and create a path forward. All right. The next becomes organizational leadership. This is if we're thinking systems or like the system level. This is not about your personal output anymore. This is about creating conditions so where other people can thrive without you micromanaging them or rescue them. This is how you are being cross-functionally with the other peers that are either at your title or in similar departmental leads.

Speaker 1: 8:09

I coached a leader recently who I have their permission to share this, but they were absolutely trapped in the like. I'll just do it myself because it's faster and it's you know, they're sort of in that loop. So it felt safer and what was happening is that they were doing everything. They weren't challenging the team, they were overworked, they weren't getting everything done the way that they wanted to get things done and were starting to feel that pressure and the cracks. The shift changed in our coaching, realizing that they were doing all the work, they were taking away the agency and the freedom of others to be able to step up and do the work. And sometimes you need people to struggle a little bit to figure out how to get there. I'm not talking about blowing the goal. I'm saying like, let them figure it out.

Speaker 1: 8:49

And when you don't think about organizational leadership and you're always solving everyone else's problems, it tends to create a distrust and a credibility in the organization. See, that happen sometimes is that the individual will start speaking for you, right? So if I'm a leader and we go to a meeting with other leaders, I'm not letting my team speak because I can answer it better or faster, or so I think I can, and maybe you can because you have more seasonality and more experience in this area, but you're not doing anyone a service by sitting in and being the person who's answering all the questions, and I'll tell you, your peers and your executive leadership is also not thinking the same thing. All it's showing me is that you don't necessarily know how to lead a team. So, when you think about organizational leadership, I want you to think about how are you scaling culture, empowering decision-making, empowering sovereignty and self-agency, and making sure that people are stepping into that accountability and letting go of that tight level of control so that others can step up?

Speaker 1: 9:54

Next area is what I call generative leadership. This is where leadership becomes stewardship. Your influence really extends beyond your direct team. You mentor, you uplift, you shape the culture in ways that outlast you. It could be reverse mentorship with a junior colleague. They could be mentoring you on something that they're seeing, while you're also mentoring rising junior leaders. It can be rewriting what leadership looks like in your industry. Generative leadership, though, is not about age or seniority. It's about choosing to lead in ways that are magnetic and making sure that your presence ripples through long after you leave the room. So being the smartest person in the room who is going to tell everyone this is what we need to do isn't necessarily generative leadership Teaching others and helping them also learn and therefore you can shape the culture and ways that it will outlast you being in the room. That's what we're talking about. This also may mean you taking a role within your industry or in a trade association or a trade group that supports your industry. Where are you making sure that your influence extends beyond the direct impact of your team and perhaps even beyond your subject matter expertise? Who are you on the leader?

Speaker 1: 11:10

I find that people really love to talk about purpose, and purpose sometimes is a very overused word. I prefer intention. Purpose can feel fixed or forced. Intention to me, feels alive. It feels like it's organic and growing and can pivot where purpose feels very directive and it's helpful, but it doesn't feel like there's flexibility to me in the word purpose. Intention is how you show up in the moment, it's what you prioritize, it's how you frame your impact, it's how you're making decisions when things get complicated. It's every point of leadership here. It's the self-leadership, relational, team, organizational and generative Thinking through.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Your intention is that through line, and when you're navigating organizations with intention, there's an opportunity to really think through the practical part, which is about outcomes and relationship. Yes, it's how things get done. It's how. Titles aren't the only people that are holding the influence and power. It is the relationship that does so.

Speaker 1: 12:15

I want to ask you to ask yourself, like, when you're thinking this through and you're thinking through your intention, it's questions like, well, what needs to happen and by when, and what's the outcome? And how do I make it clear that you're giving people ownership, that they can do the how? When you're telling them the what? Right, you want to make sure that they're having a stake in that so they can also grow their leadership and along the way, I want you to never underestimate that there are small signals that you may see, that these small signals are those milestones in which we grow against right. It signals respect when you're giving people an opportunity to step up along the way, because you respect their intelligence, their expertise, their subject matter and how they're going to show up for the company. So the question I'm going to leave you with is who are you today as a leader? Who do you want to be as a leader? What's that gap and what's the work you need to do? That's the work right.

Speaker 1: 13:13

Leadership is about nurturing this mindset. Okay, friends, you know I always love to hear from you, what do you think, what are your thoughts, how are you working through these various areas of leadership? And I always love to hear from you. So you can email me at hello at jillgriffincoachingcom, and, if you need support, also reach out, because I would love to be your coach or come into your organization and help you work through creating some of our team dynamics, increasing team dynamics and improving culture. All right, until next time, barely think through your leadership identity and who you wanna be, be in possibility and always, always, always.