Leadership That Moves: Why the Best Leaders Act with Intention
Why This Matters
One of the biggest differentiators between good and great leaders isn’t how much they know—it’s how consistently they act with purpose.
One of the biggest differentiators between good and great leaders isn’t how much they know; it’s how consistently they act with purpose.
In times of ambiguity, pressure, or rapid change, many leaders stall out. Some wait for perfect clarity. Others default to reactive behavior, often undermining trust, momentum, and team performance. But high-performing leaders don’t freeze or flail. They act intentionally, courageously, and in alignment with values and strategy.
What Research Tells Us About Leadership Action
Research across leadership effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and high-performance behaviors reveals that the leaders who outperform their peers are those who:
Take deliberate action aligned with long-term vision, even when the path isn’t fully clear.
Stay behaviorally consistent, avoiding mood-driven volatility or mixed signals.
Drive clarity in the team through timely decisions, direction, and follow-up.
Recover quickly from mistakes or misfires by owning outcomes and resetting focus.
Studies like Zenger & Folkman’s (2019) work on top-performing leaders show that decisive action combined with relational credibility consistently places leaders in the top quartile of performance. In short, knowing what to do matters—but following through on it with presence matters even more.
The FRAME Model: A Structure to Help Leaders Show Up, Step Up, and Act
That’s where the FRAME model comes in, a research-aligned leadership coaching framework I’ve developed to help leaders navigate the complexity of their roles with clarity, consistency, and results.
FRAME equips leaders to:
Focus: Clarify what matters most.
Reflect: Evaluate assumptions and emotional triggers.
Act: Choose intentional, effective behaviors.
Measure: Track progress with meaningful metrics.
Elevate: Raise the bar for self and others.
The Act element is the turning point of the model. After clarifying focus and reflecting on internal barriers or contextual realities, leaders commit to specific behaviors that move things forward.
We ask:
What’s one behavior that signals progress right now?
What does the team need from you that they’re not currently getting?
Where are you hesitating—and what’s the cost of that inaction?
This isn’t about rushing into activity. It’s about choosing action that builds momentum, deepens alignment, and strengthens trust.
FRAME + High-Performing Teams: Building Better, Together
Utilizing FRAME does more than improve individual leadership, it catalyzes team performance. Here’s how:
FRAME builds behavioral consistency, which research shows is critical to psychological safety and team trust.
FRAME fosters accountability, especially when leaders engage in reflective practices and track measurable actions—core components of high-performing teams.
FRAME links individual leadership action to team objectives, allowing leaders to activate the right drivers at the right time.
We often pair FRAME with a high-performance team assessment to create a feedback loop between individual leadership behaviors and overall team dynamics. The assessment uncovers specific strengths and gaps across critical team dimensions, from trust to results focus, while FRAME provides the structure to coach and course correct behaviors at both the individual and team level.
Additionally, we use the high performance pattern (HPP) coaching lens, which is used to identify how a leader shows up under pressure allowing us to tailor the FRAME approach to honor both the leader’s natural style and their growth edges. For example, some leaders “act” by over-owning, while others under-respond. FRAME helps leaders align action with context.
Leaders Who Act, Teams That Perform
When leaders act with intention and consistency, the ripple effect is powerful:
Teams gain clarity
Culture stabilizes
Momentum builds
Results follow
As one senior executive shared after applying FRAME:
“We didn’t just shift behaviors—we reset our operating rhythm. I became more present, my team became more accountable, and we saw faster follow-through across functions.”
Ready to Strengthen How You Lead and How Your Team Performs?
Whether you’re developing emerging leaders or recalibrating a senior team, FRAME provides the leadership structure, tools, and insights needed to unlock sustainable performance.
Let’s connect to explore how we can elevate your leaders and build the higher-performing teams your business depends on.
Dan Burns, MBA, PCC, CPCC
