The 3S: a leader's intent

A leader's intent states what a leader expects, clearly enough that a team can act on it without waiting for instructions. Mine fits in three words: Solidarity, Substance, Standards.

Each of the three holds two ideas that pull against each other. Most leadership teams are good at one of the two. The expectation is to hold both.

Solidarity - collective ownership and personal accountability

A leadership team takes collective ownership of the success of the whole organization, and each of its members is personally accountable for the area they run.

The organization comes first, ahead of the immediate interest of any function or of the team one leads. Within that rule, each leader is fully responsible for their own area. That means driving it, not merely presiding over it.

The pursuit of the collective good is never an excuse for poor personal performance. It is like winning a game that has rules: you do not say you lost because of the rule, and you do not accept it from your teams either.

Helping other members of the team perform is part of everyone's job, and letting others help you is part of the process. The team debates passionately when needed, and its members never criticize each other in front of their teams or other stakeholders.

Substance - accurate facts and critical thinking

Decisions rest on objective facts and on rigorous reasoning from those facts. Both are needed. Accurate facts with weak reasoning lead nowhere, and strong reasoning on wrong facts leads somewhere worse.

When this works, people trust that reality is not being distorted and that decisions are fair. They assume good intent and challenge each other constructively, because the facts are accurate and the conclusions rigorously derived.

It is not about getting bogged down in minutiae or paralyzed by endless analysis. It is about the relevant facts, checked, and their rigorous interpretation. It also means collecting broad data and seeking input before reaching conclusions about people and situations.

Standards - raising the ceiling and raising the floor

Raising the ceiling means lifting the bar of excellence, increasing the number of exceptionally talented people and using their strengths. Raising the floor means lifting the minimum level of performance that is observed and accepted anywhere in the organization.

An organization that only raises the ceiling ends up with a few stars and a tolerated mediocrity. One that only raises the floor ends up decent everywhere and excellent nowhere.

In practice: expectations, results and successes are shared relentlessly. Feedback is fact-based, systematic and structured. Poor performance is addressed within a clear timeframe, and high performance is rewarded. Nobody who meets the standard is left behind when a decision affects their position.

This is not about ignoring morale. Engagement is not the result of trying to make everyone happy. It is an outcome of achievements, provided they are real and meaningful to the people who delivered them.

Pierre Le Manh, Founder and Principal, NeuronVentures