The Intention Gap is costing you your best people


The Gap Nobody Talks About

You're leading from reaction. And you probably don't know it.

Not because you lack values. You could recite them right now. Not because you lack capability. Your track record proves otherwise. But when the decision is yours to make, when the pressure is highest, when it actually counts, something else takes over.

This episode is for the leader who is high-performing and quietly exhausted. The founder who keeps adding more instead of looking at what needs to go. The executive who has everything on paper and still feels like they're leading in the dark.

If that's you, keep reading.

A Chief People Officer said it better than I ever could:

"I know what good leadership looks like. I can coach my team through it. But when the moment comes, I just react. I become someone I don't want to be."

That's The Intention Gap. The space between the leader you intend to be and the one who shows up when it costs something. It's not a character flaw. It's a pattern. And it's running your leadership without your permission.

This episode is about seeing it clearly, then closing it.

๐ŸŽฏ Highlights You Can't Miss:

  • Why your best leaders are burning out and it's not because they lack resilience
  • The moment I caught my own reactive pattern mid-meeting and what I did about it
  • The Simone Biles lesson that every senior leader needs to hear
  • What "turning the headlights back on" actually looks like in daily leadership
  • Why adding more frameworks widens the gap instead of closing it
  • The Unlearn, Unlock, Unleash method and how each stage works in practice

๐Ÿ”ฅ Quotable Moment: "You don't close The Intention Gap by adding more. You close it by removing what no longer serves."

video previewโ€‹

โ€‹
๐Ÿ’ก Key Takeaways:

  • A clear picture of how reactive leadership develops and why it's not a character flaw
  • One question to ask yourself before your next meeting that will immediately shift how you show up
  • An understanding of why your team's performance issues might be a leadership identity issue in disguise
  • The difference between leading from fear and leading from intention, and how to tell which one you're doing
  • Why the most skilled people in the room are often the ones furthest from their own values under pressure

The gap is real. And it's closeable.

But only once you can see it.

Go listen. And when it lands, take the next step.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Take the Intention Gap Scorecardโ€‹

Six dimensions. Seven minutes. Most leaders are surprised by what they find.

We'd love to hear your thoughts! After listening, don't forget to leave a comment on YouTube, leave a review and share your favourite takeaways on socials.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
โ€‹Unsubscribe ยท Preferencesโ€‹

Live Your Quotes Newsletter

Live Your Quotes is a weekly newsletter for motivated professionals who want to grow as leaders and individuals. Featuring original quotes you won't find anywhere else, delivered through deep-dives, real stories, and provocative questions that create intentional change.

Read more from Live Your Quotes Newsletter

Good Morning Reader Today I want to talk to you about the beauty of boredom. I know what you are thinking. Boredom? Really? You are telling me, someone navigating complexity, leading teams, making decisions that matter, that I need more boredom in my life? Yes. That is exactly what I am telling you. And if you will give me a few minutes, I think I can change how you see this entirely. When I was a teenager, I noticed something that unsettled me. The person I was with my school friends and the...

Good Morning Reader Last week I told you that clarity comes before purpose. This week I want to tell you what clarity actually costs. Nobody wants what comes next. "You have had the insight. You have had the conversation. You have felt the shift. And then you went back to exactly what you were doing before." In my executive coaching contracts, I have a rule. It is written clearly and it is written in bold. If we meet three times and you have not taken action on what we have talked about, I...

Hi Reader Purpose Is a Privilege I Cannot Afford That was the opening line of a conversation I had with a client. Twenty-nine years in corporate. An extraordinary career. The kind of leader who quietly held organisations together while others took the credit. He had navigated roles, managed politics, delivered results, and built a reputation that most people spend entire careers chasing. And then the question came. What next? He had started reading. The books, the articles, the LinkedIn...