Leader's Intent (#105)
“Upon reading these accounts, one cannot fail to be impressed by the significant results achieved by the little groups of men… who advanced in the opening minutes of Operation NEPTUNE (the invasion of Normandy) against whatever enemy confronted them without asking whether they were outnumbered, and then held their ground waiting for the larger forces to come up.”
Anonymous Officer, “Comment on 82d Division Operations”
Little Groups of Paratroopers
Operation Overlord, or the D-Day invasion, on June 6, 1944 was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The sheer magnitude of what was done in one 24-hour period amazes me to this day — 156,115 American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed by boat and airplane across a 55-mile coastline defended by 50,000 German troops. There were crises across every drop zone and on each of the five beaches -- Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword -- but by the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold in France and began the liberation of German occupied Western Europe.
As a former paratrooper, I loved reading about and visiting the Drop Zones and objectives of the paratroopers on both flanks of the Normandy invasion. In the west, around 13,100 American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops behind Utah Beach, followed by 3,937 glider troops during the day. Behind Sword Beach (in the east), the British 6th Airborne Division inserted approximately 8,500 men by parachute and glider. Both Dick Winters’ of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (in the west) and Major John Howard’s of D Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Airborne Division (in the east) heroic achievements were made famous in books by the historian Stephen Ambrose.
A more unfamiliar paratrooper is Lieutenant Colonel Ben Vandervoort, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 82nd Airborne Division. With combat experience in Sicily, Vandervoort, then 27-years old, led a unit of about 560 paratroopers in a mission to land at Drop Zone O and “capture and hold the town of Ste. Mere Eglise.”
C-47, or DC-3, cargo planes could carry 18 paratroopers. It took hundreds of planes to deliver a Parachute Infantry Regiment. Even small errors between the pilots could result in paratroopers being scattered across the countryside during a night, combat, parachute assault. Whenever you drop thousands of paratroopers at night, there will be chaos, unexpected events, and adversity. Embracing the uncertainty, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions planned for things not to go right during a parachute jump. To overcome the challenges of a night airborne assault, the leaders ensured that all paratroopers understood their commander’s intent. That way, when little groups of paratroopers found each other in the middle of the night after missing the drop zone, a leader would take charge, start attacking anything that looks like it belonged to the German military, and do their best to accomplish the group’s purpose and leader’s intent. The legend of the little groups of paratroopers, aggressively operating under intent and demonstrating initiative was solidified in the hedgerows of Normandy.
Lieutenant Colonel Ben Vandervoort’s Commander’s Intent in Normandy would have been simple. 2nd Battalion, 505th PIR’s purpose was to protect the northwest flank of Utah Beach and the 4th Infantry Division landings. Its key tasks were to conduct a night parachute assault, assemble the battalion, seize the town of Ste. Mere Eglise, and defend the town of Ste. Mere Eglise from German counterattacks. On June 7, 1944 or D-Day+1, Ste. Mere Eglise and its road network needed to be in the battalion’s possession.
Of course, even after months of planning and rehearsals paratroopers were scattered across the French countryside in the early morning hours of June 6th. To make things more challenging, Vandervoort broke his foot during his landing. In spite of the adversities, he assembled a small group of men, moved overland, and, together with elements of the 3rd Battalion, 505th PIR, attacked and seized the small village of Ste. Mere Eglise and its crossroads. For the next several days, Vandervoort and his men defended north of the town against determined German attacks. For his actions in Normandy, Vandervoort received a Distinguished Service Cross (the nation’s second highest award for valor). As one combat veteran and friend described him, he was “calm… clear and decisive in combat and always led from the front in the standard 82nd fashion.” In the movie The Longest Day, John Wayne portrayed him.
Commander’s intent empowers subordinates’ improvisation and adaptation during complex operations under evolving conditions. Due to Lieutenant Colonel Vandervoort’s paratroopers understanding his intent, when the sun came up on the morning of June 6th, Ste. Mere Eglise was under the control of the 2nd Battalion, 505th PIR. Little groups of paratroopers displayed disciplined initiative and decentralized execution in the chaos of combat on D-Day.
Commander’s Intent
The 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment on June 6, 1944 used organizational grit to persevere and overcome obstacles. Organizational grit is forged by providing the team a goal and a purpose, a plan, a scoreboard, a gritty culture, and building trust in the team. A critical part of organizational grit is providing the group a purpose, a goal, and a scoreboard. One way to do this is to borrow the military’s concept of commander’s intent which combines all three into one elegant package.
Current Army doctrine defines the commander’s intent as, "a clear, concise statement of what the force must do and the conditions the force must establish with respect to the enemy, terrain, and civil considerations that represent the desired end state. The commander's intent succinctly describes what constitutes success for the operation. It includes the operation’s purpose and the conditions that define the end state. It links the mission, concept of operations, and tasks to subordinate units." Commanders strive to ensure that not just their direct reports, but their direct-direct reports understand the commander’s intent. During my time in the Army, I was expected to understand my boss’s intent and my boss’s-boss’s intent and make sure that my direct and my direct-direct reports understood my intent. Understanding the purpose, or the why, two levels down is a powerful advantage.
In Afghanistan, the battalion I commanded used commander’s intent to empower, adapt, and improvise as we fought in Paktika Province. Our purpose was to increase the safety and security in that region. Our key task was to conduct counterinsurgency operations in conjunction with our Afghan government partners. Our end state specified that by December 31, 2010 the battalion and our Afghan partners would decrease violence in the province by 10 percent (the decrease in violence would be seen as the population siding with the government against the Taliban).
This commander’s intent empowered my direct reports to operate without constantly calling me and asking for permission as the situation evolved. When a group of Taliban insurgents presented themselves, my direct reports could attack them without hesitation because it was contributing to the increased safety and security of the province. Additionally, if a mission was overcome by unexpected events, my direct reports were free to improvise as long as their actions aligned with the intent. It is an exceptionally powerful tool in an ambiguous environment.
Leader’s Intent
The leader’s intent, or intent, works well for corporate, non-profit, and sports teams too. Like the commander’s intent, the leader’s intent has three parts: the purpose, or a why; key tasks, or the what or the how; and a defined end state, or what does success look like. A leader’s intent describes how the CEO or leader envisions the environment at a point in time in the future. It shows what represents success. A leader’s intent fully recognizes the chaos, lack of a complete information, and changes in what the competition is doing may make a plan either completely or partially obsolete as it is being executed. The role of leader’s intent is to empower subordinates and guide their initiative and improvisation as they adapt the plan to the ever-changing environment. Like the military, understanding the leader’s intent at least two levels up and two levels down increases alignment.
For the leader, make sure you have a deep understanding of the three aspects of the leader’s intent:
The purpose, or the why (think about a slightly broader purpose than in a mission statement. It needs to enable people to make decisions in your absence. Chapter 13 has a purpose exercise).
Key Tasks that must be accomplished (maybe one for each department, division, or section). There are two ways to think about key tasks. First, each of your business units or silo may need a key task, or you may need to break down the end state into a series of steps that need to be accomplished during a specific time period. Make sure that each task is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.
The end state, or what success looks like (I find it helpful for the end state to be measurable and be tied to a date in the future). End State describes how the world looks at a certain date in the future. It takes tough intellectual work to develop an end state that you, your direct reports, and their direct reports can envision and helps move the organization in a positive direction. Finding the right metric to use may require an iterative process. For military units, it is helpful to conceptualize an end state that looks at friendly forces, enemy forces, and the environment. Sports teams may find it useful to conceptualize the future from the perspective of your team, the competition, and the fans. Businesses may find it helpful to conceptualize the future from the perspective of your business, the competition, and the clients or users. Finally, non-profits may find it useful to think about the future from the perspective of your group, what you are supporting, and the donors.
Leader’s Intent Examples
Here are three examples of leader’s intent that demonstrate its utility in different situations.
For corporate groups, here is a small manufacturing company’s leader’s intent from early 2020:
Purpose: ACME Manufacturing will keep the team safe and employed.
Key Tasks:
Preserve cash
Sales team must get orders, especially in the 2nd Quarter
Cost containment – use our money frugally
End State: By December 30, 2020 ensure ACME Manufacturing has met 75% of 2019 sales and production
ACME Manufacturing was able to make 103 percent of its 2019 sales, as well as improve their efficiency during the pandemic due to their leader’s intent.
Another example is Apple Computers in late 2006. They had just released the MacBook Pro laptops, transitioned to Intel processor chips, and the iPod and iTunes were doing well. The company needed to keep innovating, so hypothetically they might have used a leader’s intent that looked something like this:
Purpose: Challenge the status quo and increase shareholder value
Key Tasks:
Build user friendly, beautifully designed, easy to use devices
Expand services platforms
End State: Annual revenue up 17% by December 31, 2007
Apple went on to release the iPhone in 2007, significantly disrupting the status quo.
Lastly, think of Love’s Travel Stops in 2020.
Purpose: Grow the company profitably and innovatively while maintaining the brand’s reputation for highway hospitality
Key Tasks:
Love’s Travel Stops – Be the cleanest and friendliest spot on the highway for fuel, food, and snacks; invest in our people, and grow by 8%
Gemini – Continue to safely transport petroleum products across the nation
Musket – Purchase energy resources innovatively and profitably
Trillium – Develop into a market leader for innovative energy solutions
End State: By December 31, 2020 open 40 new stores, add 3,000 parking spots, create 2,500 new jobs.
Love’s was able to meet all their goals in spite of the pandemic.
The three examples of leaders’ intent provide just a start for you and your team. Developing a great leader’s intent is an iterative process and one that requires input from and collaboration with your team.
Developing Your Leader’s Intent
Drafting a leader’s intent in a vacuum rarely works. Instead, it must be a team effort. Once you have your organization’s purpose sorted out (see Chapter 13), it is important to bring the group together and discuss the key tasks that must be accomplished and what the collective vision for the future is. Getting the group’s buy-in makes it much easier to get the group to strive towards accomplishing the leader’s intent. I find that this exercise works best in a room with a large wall and large pieces of paper to write on for groups or individual leaders.
Have each member of the team read this chapter. Then bring the team into a large room and spend some time talking about your understanding of the concept of leader’s intent. Take large pieces of paper (or white boards) and place them around the room along with markers. Divide the leadership team into small groups and give them 20 minutes to come up with a leader’s intent for the entire team (your leader’s intent). Have each group brief you and the rest of the group on their version of the leader’s intent. Select one group’s leader’s intent or build a hybrid to use as the overall group’s leader’s intent.
Once you have settled on the overall leader’s intent, place it on the wall where everyone can see it. Then, send each leader back out to a fresh piece of paper for another 20 minutes to create her leader’s intent for her portion of the organization (one-level down). Have each leader brief one of their peers on their leader’s intent, get feedback, and then swap. Once they refine them, have each direct report talk you through their leader’s intent. In a couple of hours, you can have aligned leader’s intents for the overall organization and the next level down.
Once you have finalized the leader’s intent, communicate, communicate, communicate it to the organization. Having a leader’s intent is the first step. Everyone knowing the leader’s intent one-level and even two-levels down is the next step and increases the impact exponentially. Shorter and memorable is important if you want your leader’s intent to cascade throughout the organization.
Obstacle
One challenge that leaders encounter is that their boss often doesn’t provide a leader’s intent. Even in the Army where it is part of the processes and culture it happens. For example, my boss didn’t publish his intent until we had been on the ground in Afghanistan for two months. I published mine five months earlier because I wanted my battalion to have my intent as we planned, deployed, and were in our first engagements on the ground. When my boss finally published his, I modified mine to align and nest with his. No matter what the environment or circumstance, don’t wait for your boss to publish their intent. Do the right thing, publish your intent, and empower your team to act with disciplined initiative in an evolving environment.
Conclusion
Your team is not parachuting into the hedgerows of Normandy. Yet, providing a leader’s intent to sports teams, non-profits, and corporate groups will enhance your organization’s sense of empowerment, initiative, and adaptation as the environment changes and evolves. Go on the offensive and enhance your organization’s grit by providing them a leader’s intent that combines a purpose, a roadmap, and a goal.