Leading people and AI tools with intent
Three teams. One new process for admitting patients. I set it out at the Monday standup. Eye contact, nods all round. By Friday there were three different versions running.
Nobody disobeyed. The why never landed, and nobody was going to embarrass themselves by admitting they hadn't understood.
I've come to think this is the bigger blind spot for senior leaders. Most of the leaders I meet can delegate. Fewer of them check whether the reason behind the work survived the trip from their head to the people doing it.
The curse of knowledge
Psychologists have a name for part of this: the curse of knowledge. Once you know something, it's very hard to imagine not knowing it. You've lived with the change for weeks. You've had the board conversations and read the data. So when you say it in two minutes at a standup, it sounds complete to you. To your team it's two minutes of new information on a busy Monday.
The nods aren't lies. They mean "I heard you", not "I could explain this to someone else".
Stay in their ear
At the Paralympics in March, Johannes Aigner won the visually impaired downhill in 1:16.08. His guide, Nico Haberl, skied just ahead of him all the way down.
Vision impaired racers ski at up to 100 km/h behind a sighted guide, talking through radios built into their helmets. One guide sums up his side as "right, left, jump, go faster". Another was told to say everything she could think of, and to keep looking back to check her skier was still there.
The guide calls what's coming. The skier makes every turn. At that speed, nobody can make it for them.
That's how I think about a leader's intent. You can't make every turn for your team, and you shouldn't try. Your plan covers the slope you can see. Your team will hit the part you can't. What they need from you is a signal that is clear, constant, and checked.
What a clear intent signal holds
When I work with leaders on this, we get it down to four things:
Where we're going, and what the end state looks like.
Why does it matter now?
The context the team needs to make good calls without you.
The boundaries nobody crosses without asking first.
If you can't write those in a few lines, your team won't be able to either.
Then check it landed
There's a story that Napoleon had a corporal hear his orders before they went out. If the corporal could repeat the plan back, it was sent. If not, it was rewritten. There's no primary source for it, so treat it as a parable. But the point holds. The generals had careers riding on the plan. The corporal had nothing to lose by saying "I didn't get that."
Most senior leaders don't have that person.
So build the check in yourself. After your next big announcement, ask one person to tell you the why in their own words. Not the what. The why. You're testing the transmission, not the person. If what comes back is fuzzy, the fix is in how you said it, not in them.
Now add AI tools
More of the work in your organisation now goes to AI tools. They don't nod, and they don't ask what you meant. They give you back what you put in, at speed.
The same four elements apply. Write the intent down where the tool can read it. Be explicit about the boundaries it doesn't cross without a person signing off. Name who can stop the work when it drifts. Then check what it did against what you meant, the same way a good guide keeps looking back.
A leader who can brief a team clearly can brief a tool clearly. A leader whose why gets lost with people will lose it faster with software.
The test
Who on your team could explain your intent for this quarter without you in the room?
If you're not sure, that's the place to start. Pick one priority, write the four elements down, and ask someone to play it back to you this week.
If you'd like a sparring partner on this, there's more on how I work with senior leaders on this site.
Sources
International Paralympic Committee, "Skiers with vision impairment and their guides": https://www.paralympic.org/feature/skiers-vision-impairment-guides-dream-team
Milano Cortina 2026 men's downhill, vision impaired, highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV-xp36tcCU