How do you as
a leader mind the gap between your intentions and the consequences?
One of the most critical
issues of leadership on any level in an organization or society is the gap
between a leader’s “intentions” and a leader’s “behavior.” As I have taught leadership and consulted
with churches over the years, I have seen this issue repeated constantly. There also can be a gap between one’s
intentions and the consequences. I want
to content in this blog that such gaps are inevitable and that how a leader
deals with this issue is directly related to the leader’s ultimate
effectiveness. I should remind my
readers that when it comes to evaluating leadership, the key ingredient should
be not whether a leader is a good or bad one, but whether a leader is effective
or ineffective.
The Gap
First let me describe the
issue more fully. All humans have a
similar characteristic, namely that we see most clearly “our intentions.” We see less clearly our behavior and its
consequences.
For example, as a parent
my intention may be to enable my children to be successful. What I may not see is that my anxiety for
their success may communicate to them that they are not able to take
responsibility for their own lives. I
may be overly emotionally involve and as a consequence of my behavior
undermining my own intentions. As I said,
this is just natural, I cannot easily observe myself. The problem gets worse when I am confronted
with a disconnect between my intentions and the consequences. The issue is what I do when I am confronted
with this.
Initially, most of us
protect our own egos by simply explaining to someone what our intentions
are. Often, as the gap between
intentions and consequences widen, two things tend to happen. We become more anxious and compensate with justifying
and rationalizing by explaining more and more our true intentions. Meanwhile those observing us become more and
more emotionally put off and then begin to surmise, some would say project,
what our “real” intentions are.
Leaders
Leaders are of course
human. When we extend this natural
behavior into an organization and what do we see? We see a leader presenting her or his
intentions and others watching the leader’s behavior and consequences. The issue for a leader is how we handle the
gap, or said another way, how we handle the feedback over this gap. As I said, most naturally we explain once
again our intentions.
Sometimes this is all that
is needed. Sometimes a leader has simply
failed to communicate clearly what our intentions really are. With better communications, this problem can
be helped. However, this is not always
the issue. Often the issue is that our
ego tries to protect us from looking at the gap between what we intended and
what is actually happening. In my
experience, if a leader can objectively process feedback about this gap (what I
call minding the gap), then make some adjustments in strategies and behaviors,
the leader can become more effective in accomplishing one’s intentions and
goals. If you are following me, I will
now give some examples.
Examples
When I when to work for
the Diocese of Texas, if was in the last years of Bishop Benitez’ 15 year
tenure. I quickly realized that the
organization of the Diocese of Texas was stuck on several levels. For example, no one believed more in
evangelism than the Bishop. It was one
of the reasons he had hired me. Yet, the
Diocese at the end of his tenure was almost exactly the same size it had been
at the beginning of his tenure. There
was a gap between his intentions and the consequences. What the good bishop did was to deal with
this disconnect by simply explaining “once more” his intention to have the
Church be effective in bringing new people to Christ. Many times during those last months of his
tenure, I would hear him respond to a challenge by saying “let me explain this
one more time.” Meanwhile his followers
had become divided. There were those who
believed his intentions made him a “good leader.” Then there were others who were frustrated by
his inability to receive feedback and tended to see him as a “bad leader.” These folks would often explain to me as a
newcomer what the Bishop “really intended.”
Or take President Obama for
another example. After watching him as a
leader these past six years, it is clear how he manages the gap between his
intentions and its consequences. Mostly he explains once again his intentions. I know this is an area of some passion with partisans
loyally and lovingly defending him while critics are more and more questioning
his “real intentions,” but step back from this situation and you can see much
of our societies’ stuckness.
I believe the President
when he says that his intention in the health care act was to see to it that
more of the 40 million uninsured Americans be provided effective healthcare
through insurance. However, when
confronted with the failure of the legislation to effectively reach a
significant number of those who had not been insured he returns to his
intentions. Add to this that there have
been some unintended consequences of the new law. For example, many lost their insurance despite
his promises otherwise. What did he and
his administration do with this gap between intentions and consequences? Naturally, he explains one more time his
intentions.
Will he be effective in
improving the health care system and insuring more of the uninsured during the
remainder of his tenure? It is unlikely
given the growing polarization and his inability to mind the gap. A more creative response would be to admit
that such a complex piece of legislation will naturally need to be reviewed and
adjusted. Yet to admit this seems to
question the integrity of his intentions.
When reason departs and rhetoric and spin become the end game, it
usually means that the leader or leaders have failed to mind the gap.
My point is this;
explaining one more time one’s intentions only further polarizes the situation,
confuses many, and adds fuel to those eager to project “one’s real intentions.” Any casually reading of the internet or visit
to talk news programs shows us how sad this has become and why it will take
another leader to make the necessary adjustments and strategies that could make
the health care act more effective.
TEC and Its Intentions
Now take the example of
TEC’s current national leadership. As we
all know by now, our intentions for the past ten years have been to make TEC
more inclusive of others and more able to relate to our culture. I would suggest that some of the consequences
are that we have actually lost lots of people (thus becoming more theological exclusive
and we are rapidly becoming less connected to our culture by evidence of our
inability to recruit others to our community.
How do our current leaders deal with this? They explain “once more” their
intentions. Until new leadership emerges
that can mind the gap, we will continue to be a stuck community destined to
repeat unproductive behavior. Mostly
today our leaders are seen as good by their supporters and bad by their
detractors. For me they are mostly ineffective.
Learning
The bottom line for
leaders is this. An effective leader has
the ability to mind the gap between our intentions, our behavior and the consequences. An effective leader is able to receive
feedback and process it in effective ways.
The effective parish clergy and Bishops that I have known actively seek
feedback (“How am I doing? How are we
doing?”) and makes continual strategic adjustments. Even more effectively, such leaders actively
involve followers in this process of feedback and adjustments.
This was one of Bishop
Payne’s great strengths. For most of his
tenure as Bishop of Texas, he and the Diocese make strategic adjustments while
keeping the vision of “One Church United in Mission” before the Diocese. He effectively minded the gap. Did he have his distractors? Yes, of course he did, all leaders do. However, he was effective in accomplishing
his goals because he avoided “having to explain one more time” his
intentions. He was able to use a diverse
group of leaders in the process of making effective adjustments to his
strategies.
So, let me
ask. How do you as a leader mind the gap
between your intentions and the consequences?
Your ability to do this openly and creatively will determine to a major
extent your effectiveness. Let those who
have eyes to see and ears to hear take note.
