Leadership
that works is not a destination; it’s an ongoing journey, made
up of many moments
and choices over time. Each decision you make has an effect on
your overall character. As you practice making better choices, those
choices become habits, and those good habits have the power to
transform your leadership. Consider that you ultimately become what
you repeatedly do. For example, if you consistently choose to be
kind, respectful, and hard-working – not in every single moment,
but in more moments than not — then you will eventually become a
kind, respectful, and hard-working leader. If this seems daunting,
know that you do not have to be perfect. You just have to do a little
better today than you did yesterday. By adding even a small amount of
effort and discipline to tweaking the habits in your day-to-day
routine, you can greatly alter the cumulative impact on your
leadership legacy.
Good habits have the power to transform your leadership.
How can you get started on developing more effective
leadership habits? Use our handy H.A.B.I.T checklist
as a guide. Think of these 5 leadership behaviors as you navigate the
daily interactions and challenges of your day. Whenever possible,
simply choose, even in the smallest way, to behave in a way that is
more aligned with these 5 positive traits that are the building
blocks of a highly effective leadership habit: Humility,
Authenticity, Bravery, Intention,
Tenacity.
HUMILITY. The best leaders are
well-anchored in their own expertise and competencies, but they are
also acutely aware of what they don’t know. They don’t
pretend to be the smartest person in the room; in fact, they
purposefully hire people even smarter than they are and rely on their
expertise to get tough jobs done. There is research to support the
importance of humility to an effective leadership habit. Jim Collins,
in his well-known book, “Good
to Great”, in which he studied successful CEOs to unearth the
secrets of their effectiveness, found that the most high-performing
leaders had a combination of both “humility and fierce resolve.”
To develop the habit, in your next interaction, pay
attention to your default response. Do you tend to try to take credit
instead of giving it away; do you interject when you could have
listened a little bit longer; do you shoot down ideas without good
reason? Practice engaging with more humility by listening better,
reading more, being more open-minded, and giving credit to others
generously. Rely on others’ expertise and thank them graciously.
AUTHENTICITY. Leadership is an
inside-out
craft. You can’t hope to deliver transformative results
externally without being firmly rooted in who
you are and what
you believe internally. Authenticity is important for guiding
your leadership decisions and ensuring you behave in a way that is
true to yourself. But it’s also crucial for 21st century
leadership because people are paying close attention to what you do
and say — and you’re probably not a very good faker (most people
aren’t). If you speak disingenuously, people can tell, and they
won’t be likely to believe in your leadership or to work hard to
honor your agenda. What’s more, authenticity is essential for
building trust, which is the
most important competency for modern leaders (that’s why it’s
at the center of our high-impact leadership model, the
ConantLeadership Flywheel). For a
variety of reasons, without trust, you will not be able to
deliver sustainable high-performance.
Leadership is an inside-out craft.
To build the authenticity habit, practice declaring
yourself by telling people exactly who you are, what you believe,
and how you intend to lead. Follow that up by doing
exactly what you say and doing it well. Honor your word. Make
room in your calendar for what you say is important. Show up in each
moment in a way that is aligned with your code.
You can also learn more about the idea of authentic leadership taking
Bill George’s helpful authentic
leadership self-assessment.
BRAVERY. Leadership isn’t easy.
There are going to be times when you’ll have to make tough
decisions that affect people’s lives. There will be moments when
you’re not sure how to engage thoughtfully or when you won’t know
what to say, or when you will second-guess a call you’ve made. But,
no matter the challenge, people are counting on you as the leader.
They need you at your best. To show up for them in the right way, in
each moment, you’re
going to have to be brave. Luckily, bravery, like any other
virtue can be practiced. The more you practice leaning in, no matter
how daunting it can be, the easier it will get, and the more
meaningfully you’ll be able to respond to problems with agility and
skill.
To practice bravery, in your next few interactions,
notice when you’re shying away from saying what you really think,
or avoiding giving some tough feedback. Have the conversation you
don’t want to have, ask the question you’re apprehensive about
asking. Practicing bravery doesn’t have to refer only to things
that seem negative. Push yourself out of your comfort zone with
giving praise, too. Maybe it feels awkward to you to express
gratitude, or to give somebody a compliment they richly deserve.
Force yourself to do it anyway. Fear can show up in different ways
for different leaders. The best way to practice bravery is to learn
to notice what you’re avoiding and choose to fully embrace and
confront that very thing. Try it in your very next conversation.
Bravery can be practiced.
INTENTION. For a long time, leaders
could get away with what we call “seat-of-the-pants” leadership.
But the information age has ushered in an unprecedented era of
complexity and dysfunction. Times
have changed. Leaders can’t haphazardly hop from one fire drill
to the next anymore; or, they can, but they won’t be able to
deliver high performance – at least not for the long run. At
ConantLeadership, we champion an intentional approach to leadership.
This means adopting a mastery model in which you treat leadership as
a craft: honed with intention, practiced mindfully, and improved
constantly.
To learn the intention habit, try shifting your
mindset from being reactive to proactive. Reactive
leaders wait for things to happen to them, and as the challenges
build and wash over them, they flail and flounder, desperately trying
to keep their heads above water. Proactive leaders
approach their leadership work with discipline and intention; they
take time to reflect
on the kind of leader they want to be and the types of tactics they
can use to bring their leadership vision to life. They practice their
craft deliberately and treat interruptions
as opportunities. Because they consider the daily work of
leadership to be one perpetual preparation for adversity, when
adversity inevitably does rear its head, they are well-equipped to
dive in and leverage their expertise and experience to navigate the
situation effectively.
To better practice the intention habit, get better
oriented in the proactive mindset by first taking the time to reflect
on the
five essential questions of leadership. Then test your readiness
with our character
and competence
checklists. Finally, you can discover a framework for approaching all
of your interactions with intention in Doug’s book, co-authored
with Mette Norgaard, TouchPoints.
TENACITY. This final essential
leadership trait holds the key to experiencing success with the other
four. Sure, you can practice with intention, engage with humility, be
anchored in authenticity, and bravely stare down the scariest of
circumstances, but you won’t achieve greatness without the
fortitude to keep going no matter what. Tenacity, or “fierce
resolve” as Jim Collins calls it, is the jewel in the crown of
effective leadership. In fact, as Professor Angela Duckworth finds in
her book, “Grit:
The Power of Passion and Perseverance”, tenacity is even more
important than talent and luck in predicting success. Frankly, you
can have astounding levels of innate talent, but if you aren’t able
to persist when the going gets tough, you’re not going to get very
far.
Habits are formed by practice and repetition — by simply making better choices more often.
Fittingly, we’ve found that the best way to
develop tenacity – which is the key to success in all areas of our
H.A.B.I.T system – is also through a commitment to cultivating the
other four traits in H.A.B.I.T. First, you have to humbly acknowledge
you have room to grow in this space, then authentically connect with
your purpose and passion, which will provide energy and inspiration
during rough patches — then practice bravery so you can call upon
your courage reserves when you want to give up, and, of course,
continually set and re-calibrate your intention so that you always
have a worthy goal to keep you going.
Overall, remember that habits are formed by practice
and repetition — by simply making better choices more often. Not
all of the time, but most of the time. With these five
H.A.B.I.Ts in mind, every day holds an opportunity to make a better
choice than you did yesterday, to show up a little more completely
than you did before. Over time, the power of your habits is likely to
surprise you as your leadership effectiveness grows and grows.
