Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: Why Purpose Needs a HOW
Most organizations don’t set out to get it wrong.
Leaders generally want to communicate clearly. They want employees to feel valued. Brands want customers to trust them. Purpose-driven organizations want their work to make a difference.
The intentions are often good.
But good intentions and good outcomes aren’t the same thing.
That’s the tension at the center of a recent Fast Company article by Sally Clarke, which examines the gap between what leaders mean to do and what people actually experience.
Clarke offers leaders a three-part filter: motivation, intention and outcome.
Motivation asks what is driving us.
Intention asks what we plan to do.
Outcome asks what we are actually trying to create.
It’s a useful framework, and it points toward an even bigger question for purpose-driven organizations:
What happens between intention and outcome?
That’s where the HOW matters.
Purpose can point the way without determining the path
Purpose has become part of the vocabulary of modern organizations.
Companies articulate why they exist. Nonprofits define the change they hope to create. Leaders talk about the impact they want to have.
That matters.
But purpose alone doesn’t tell us how to behave when things become complicated.
Consider two leaders who share exactly the same intention: I want my team to succeed.
One may respond to a struggling employee by tightening control. Another may ask questions, listen and give that person greater ownership.
Same intention. Very different HOW.
And potentially very different outcomes.
The difference often comes down to the principles guiding the choices made along the way.
The missing space between WHY and WHAT
We often talk about purpose as the WHY and action as the WHAT.
But there is an enormous space between the two.
It is filled with decisions.
How do we respond when someone disagrees with us?
How do we communicate when the stakes are high?
How do we treat people when they make mistakes?
How do we balance urgency with listening?
How do we pursue results without undermining the people we’re trying to empower?
Those choices become the HOW.
And principles can provide a framework for making them.
A principle such as empowerment, for example, pushes a leader to ask whether a decision gives someone greater agency or unnecessarily takes it away.
Humility reminds us that our perspective may be incomplete.
Openness invites information that could challenge our assumptions.
Mutual benefit asks whether the solution creates value for everyone involved rather than simply achieving our own immediate objective.
These aren’t words for a wall. They are decision-making tools.
Impact is experienced by someone else
Perhaps the most important point in Clarke’s argument is also one of the hardest for communicators and leaders.
We know our intentions.
Other people don’t.
They experience our actions.
A leader can intend to be helpful and come across as controlling. A company can intend to reassure customers and instead create confusion. An organization can intend to empower a community while designing a solution that leaves little room for the people closest to the challenge to shape it.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the original intention was wrong.
It may mean the HOW needs examination.
And that requires something more difficult than simply restating our purpose. It requires feedback.
What did the other person experience?
What did we miss?
What could we do differently?
Did our actions reflect the principles we say guide us?
Purpose becomes more credible when organizations are willing to ask those questions.
From purpose to practice
There is a reason purpose can sometimes feel disconnected from everyday organizational life.
Purpose tends to live at the highest level.
Practice happens in thousands of small moments.
A meeting.
An email.
A disagreement.
A hiring decision.
A customer interaction.
A response to criticism.
A decision about who gets invited into the room.
Those moments are where purpose either becomes tangible or remains aspirational.
Which is why perhaps the most useful leadership question isn’t simply:
What do I intend to do?
It is:
How am I going to do it?
Because purpose can point us forward.
Principles can guide how we get there.
And our actions ultimately show whether the two are connected.
Compass Check
Before your next important decision, ask:
Does my HOW reflect the purpose I say I serve?
Source: Fast Company, “Why good intentions fall short (and the 3 questions leaders should ask instead),” Sally Clarke, September 14, 2026. (Fast Company)
Comments