Leader’s Intent

Leader’s intent is a clear, concise statement about what people must know or do to be successful in a given assignment. The intent communicates three essential pieces of information:

1. Task – the objective or goal of the assignment.
2. Purpose – why the assignment needs to be done.
3. End state – how the situation should look when the assignment is successfully completed.

In the following video, Mark Smith breaks down Leader’s Intent for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center:

(In Examples of Leaders Intent, he gives some great examples that explain this really well)

Origins

Leader’s intent is an adaptation of the Commander’s Intent which comes from US military doctrine. It’s exactly the same principle, except “Commander” has been replaced with “Leader” to make it more applicable to civilian organizations and businesses, where there are no commanders but there are leaders.

I suspect the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) popularized this rephrasing, as most references I’ve found to “Leader’s intent” point to NWCG resources (either directly or indirectly).

References