Latest / Amplifying Impact / 008: Why Smart Leaders Keep Losing the Day to Urgent Work | The Intentionality Intensive
Transcript
- Mark Watkins: Welcome to Amplifying Impact, the podcast for leaders who strive to create exceptional experiences, develop high performing teams, and lead with purpose. I'm Mark Watkins, the founder of Amplifying Impact Events. I bring decades of leadership experience rooted in the hospitality industry. However, because the pursuit of growth, excellence, and meaningful impact is a universal goal, the principles I share apply to leaders across all industries and sectors. Each episode delivers actionable insights and practical tools to help you amplify your impact. on your team, customers, and community. You'll get valuable content, enough to make a real difference in your leadership journey. However, the complete transformation awaits you at our live events. Let's get started and amplify your impact together. Here's a number, 68%. That's the percentage of leaders who've taken the impact leadership assessment and scored lowest on the same element. Not one of their lowest scores, their primary gap. their lowest area across all industries, across all experience levels, across all roles. The element is act with intentionality. If you ever sat at the end of a busy work week and thought, I worked hard, but I'm not sure I worked on the right things. That feeling has a name. And today I want to talk about what's behind it, what it's costing you and what I'm building to close that gap. Welcome to Amplify and Impact podcast. I'm Mark Watkins. If you caught this month's issue of the Leadership Hub on LinkedIn, you already know where we're headed. If not, don't worry. I'll bring you up to speed. Before we go any further, if you're not already subscribed or following the show, do that right now. Every episode delivers practical frameworks and field tested tools tied directly to the impact leadership assessment and other frameworks to help you grow as a leader. If today's conversation is landing for you, you will want to be here for what comes next. Let me tell you what act with intentionality measures, because it's not what most leaders think it is. For simplicity, I'll refer to act with intentionality as AWI. When leaders hear the word intentionality, they usually think about attitude or effort. You'll hear leaders say things such as, I care about my work. I'm paying attention. I'm trying. That's not what the impact assessment is measuring. Act with intentionality is assessing across five specific behaviors. Starting each day with clear priorities rather than reacting to whatever comes up. Regularly evaluating whether your daily actions align with your most important goals. Protecting time for strategic work rather than just constantly firefighting. Saying no to good opportunities that do not serve the highest priorities. And number five is treating the calendar as a leadership tool rather than a reaction log. Those are harder questions than they look. And the data shows that leaders score consistently low across all five. The average AWI score across all assessments I've administered is 16.8 out of 25. And for comparison, influence with integrity averages about 21.9. So 16.8 is not a small gap and 37 % of those leaders assessed fall into what I call a critical focus range. So below 15 out of 25. Here's what makes this more complicated. The environments in which most high performance leaders operate. are structurally designed to make intentional leadership harder, not easier, high urgency, high demand context, reward reactive speed. Leaders get recognized for being available, responsive, present. Those habits work in the short term. However, they become a liability over time. These leaders are not unfocused. The environment just keeps winning and no one has handed them a framework for pushing back against it. I recently debriefed a leader after their assessment who had been in his role for several years, sharp guy, generally cared about his team. When we got to his act with intentionality results, he looked at his numbers and said something. I've heard more times than I can count. I know what I should be doing. I just never seem to have the time to get to it. That sentence is the gap, not a lack of knowledge, not a lack of motivation, a structural problem. The environment keeps winning and the leaders priorities keep losing. He did not need another article about time management. He needed tools. accountability, and a community of peers navigating the same pressure. That is what I'm building. That is what this episode is about. As a leader, you've probably felt it. That tension between wanting to grow and not knowing exactly what's holding you back. Maybe it's a conversation you keep avoiding. A team dynamic that's just a little off or a season of transition that needs more than a plan. It needs perspective. That's where Jody Hilcombe on Coaching comes in. Jody works with leaders and teams at the intersection of life and leadership, helping them clarify what's really going on, align their strategy with their values, and grow through the moments that matter. Her approach is human first, which means no one size fits all formulas, just real coaching built around your unique challenges and what's next for you. Whether you're navigating a pivotal decision, leading through friction, or ready to build something that lasts, Jody brings the kind of clarity and courage the conversation needs. Learn more at JodyHilkemaCoaching.com. Welcome back. I want spend a few minutes on each of the five act with intentionality behaviors because the assessment data tells a story that goes deeper than the scores. The first behavior is daily priority practice. Can you say, I start each day with clear priorities rather than reacting to what comes up? This is the most foundational of the five. If a leader cannot name their top three priorities before they engage with the first urgent thing of the day, everything that follows is reactive by default. The second is a weekly alignment check. Can you say, regularly evaluate whether my actions align with my most important goals. Most leaders have goals. Very few leaders build in time to evaluate whether what they are actually doing is moving those goals forward. A busy week becomes the enemy of a strategic month. Let me repeat that. A busy week becomes the enemy of a strategic month. All right. The third is strategic time protection. Can you say, protect time for strategic work rather than just firefighting. This is where the environment does the most damage. In high urgency context, every hour that is not already claimed gets consumed. Leaders who do not proactively block strategic time find they never have any. Fourth is the strategic no. Can you say, I say no to good opportunities when they do not serve my highest priorities. This one is harder than it sounds because the things that pull leaders off course Usually are not bad things. They are good things. Saying no to a good thing requires being clear enough about your priorities to name the conflict out loud and stand in it. And finally, the fifth is the calendar as a leadership tool. Can you say my calendar reflects what I say matters most? I want to be careful how I frame this one because when leaders hear the word calendar, they immediately picture time blocks and color coordinated events. That is one way to live this out. But the behavior I'm describing is bigger than the app on your phone. If you write down your top three priorities in a notebook every morning and you actually use that list to drive your day, that counts. If you keep a daily planner and you protect time for what matters by putting it on paper before the urgent stuff takes over, that counts. The question is not what tool you use. The question is whether your intentions are somewhere visible, whether you're making a deliberate plan and whether the plan reflects your actual priorities. A calendar. that is just a reaction log, whether it's digital or paper, is not a leadership tool. A notebook that is a deliberate daily plan is. Leaders who score low across these five behaviors are not failing because they lack commitment. They're failing because they lack the tools, habits, and community support to fight back against the environment that pulls them into reactive mode. I introduced this topic in this month's issue of the Leadership Hub, my LinkedIn newsletter. If you're not already subscribed, Search for the Leadership Hub on LinkedIn and subscribe. I introduce concepts there. We go deeper here. And for leaders who want the full experience, that's what the live events and structured programs are for. I'll leave a link to the newsletter in the show notes. What you're hearing today is one piece of a much larger system. The framework shared on this podcast, whether it's a leadership assessment tool or a goal setting approach, all connect to a single purpose, helping you build an organization that doesn't just perform, but scales. And scales without you having to carry it all. We believe people are the key to unlocking everything else. And when you develop the right leaders, every other part of your organization performs at a higher level. That's what we do through amplifying impact events. There's also something we've seen proven out time and again. The right outside voice changes what's possible. Not because an outside perspective is always smarter, but because it sees what you can't see when you're inside the organization every day. That's the value we bring. Depending on where you are and what you need, we work with leaders and the organizations they lead in three ways. The first is the Impact Leadership Assessment. This is a structured leader-level assessment paired with a 90-day habit formation plan. We identify where your leader is strong, where they're stuck, and what to develop next with a clear, prioritized roadmap to get there. If you have a leader who's hitting a ceiling or a high-potential team member who needs a defined growth path, this is the starting point. The second is the Gravity Framework, an organizational structural assessment. This is a diagnostic session designed to identify where work is stalling in your organization. We pinpoint task stagnation, missing leadership layers, and structural gaps, then build either a 90-day release plan or a six-month build plan to restore healthy task flow. If you're the kind of leader who still finds yourself doing work that should belong to someone else, this framework is for you. The third is a leadership summit or strategy intensive, a facilitated half-day or full-day session built around your organization's current priorities. Your team walks away with shared language, practical tools, and clear direction. It's the right investment when you need alignment. whether you're entering a growth season, navigating a leadership transition, or resetting your team's culture. Every engagement we offer starts the same way, with a complimentary discovery conversation, not a sales pitch, a diagnosis, because the right solution depends on knowing where you are. If today's episode gave you something useful, imagine what a structured engagement could do for your entire leadership team. Visit amplifyingimpactevents.com to learn more or reach out directly at events at amplifyingimpactevents.com to start the conversation. Welcome back. I want to tell you about what I'm building in response to this data. This summer in June of 2026, I'm launching an intentionality intensive. It's a 30 day cohort experience built specifically to close the act with intentionality gap for live weekly sessions, practical tools, tied directly to each of the five AWI behaviors, peer accountability, and a personal 30 day commitment reviewed at the close. This is not a course. This is not a video library to work through at your own pace with no one checking in. It's a structured communal experience designed to produce actual behavioral change. There's a difference between information and transformation and the intentionality intensive is built around that distinction. So here's a week by week framework. Week one is name it. Before you can lead with intention, you have to honestly assess how reactive your leadership is. Week one is not about fixing anything yet. It's about naming the pattern. Awareness is the first act of intentionality. Leaders complete a self-assessment, track their reactive interruptions for three days, and bring that honest picture to the first cohort session. Week two is claimant. You cannot be intentional about nothing. Most leaders have vague goals. Week two gives participants the specific language and framework. for defining what their highest priorities are so that daily decisions have something real to align to. The challenge I put to every cohort, if someone watched your calendar this week, could they name your top three priorities? Week three is protected. Good intentions do not survive urgent environments without systems. This is the most practical week in the intensive. Leaders walk through the strategic time block template, the strategic no framework, and the calendar audit. We role play the actual conversations of saying no to good things when it does not serve the highest priority. The commitment at the end of week three is to block at least two intentional strategic periods on the following week's calendar before the session ends. And then finally, week four is on it. Habits do not stick without identity. The goal of the final week is to move participants from, I'm trying to be more intentional to I am an intentional leader. Leaders complete their intentionality statement. a personal leadership declaration about who they are and what they've committed to. They leave with a 90 day plan and a community of peers who are in the same commitment alongside them. At the close of the intensive, every participant has the optional pathway to complete the full impact leadership assessment so they can benchmark how their AWI score shifted over 30 days and identify what to work on next. The first cohort is limited to 12 participants. That size is intentional. The accountability dynamic that makes this work requires a tight group. When the cohort is too large, the accountability thins out and the community dynamic weakens. 12 is the number. And I want to be clear about something. This is not a one-time event. Tensionality intensive is something I'm committed to running two or three times per year. So if the first cohort fills before you get there, or if the timing is not right for you right now, there will be another one. Get your name on the waiting list and I will make sure that you know when the next one opens. Let me leave you with a few things to consider and sit with. If you regularly end your week feeling busy, but not sure you moved your most important work forward, this intensive is for you. If you know exactly what your priorities are, but your calendar does not reflect them, this intensive is for you. If you find yourself saying yes to good things and quietly resenting it because it costs you time on the right things, you should be at this event. If the urgent stuff in your day consistently wins over the important stuff and you're not sure how to fight back against it, you should be at this event. If you've read the book, you know the concepts, but that behavior has not changed. This is not more information. This is a structured experience built to close that gap. And finally, if you lead a team and you know that how you spend your time is sending a message to everyone watching you, and you're not sure that that message is the one you intend to send, this intensive is for you. The investment for an individual seat is $297. Seats are going for the June cohort, so reserve your seat today. I will leave a link to the intentionality intensive page in the show notes where you can reserve your seat today. I want talk about several ways that you could engage with my work because the intentionality intensive, just one part of a larger ecosystem. If you're new here, the best first step is the leadership hub, my LinkedIn newsletter. That's where I introduce and set the table for what we go deeper on here in the podcast. It's free, it's practical, and it's where this month's AWI data story started. The podcast, this is the second layer. Every episode I build on the newsletter content, go deeper into the frameworks and introduce the tools. that produce leadership change. If you're a regular listener, you're already doing the work. And if you're ready for the full structured experience, that happens in our live events like the Intentionality Intensive. It is the most direct path I have built yet for closing the Act with Intentionality gap. This intensive, like all of our live engagements, is where you experience the full benefits and resources of our framework. Registration for the first cohort in June, 2026 is now open. All the details are on the website. And the link is in the show notes. If you recognize this gap in yourself, if the sentence, I know what I should be doing. I just can never seem to get to it resonates with you. I want you in the room. Go to amplifyingimpactevents.com slash intensive to reserve your seat now. And if the cohort fills before you get there, put your name on the list for a future instance. I'm building this to run again. The leaders who are ready are the leaders that I want in the room. Thank you for joining me on the Amplifying Impact podcast. If this episode helped you see leadership development differently, please share it with another leader who's ready to move beyond conventional approaches. And if you found value here, the best thing you can do to help the show grow is to leave a review on the platform where you're listening. It takes just a few minutes and helps other leaders find the content. Leadership is better when we lift each other up. For more resources and to explore bringing the complete impact leadership assessment framework to your organization, visit amplifyingimpactevents.com. You can also check out the full podcast archive at AmplifyingImpactPodcast.com. Until next time, keep amplifying your impact and remember the world needs the unique leader that only you can be.