The Leader Habit

1. Leadership is a series of habits, not innate traits

"No one consciously chooses to be a bad leader."

Leadership as habit. Contrary to popular belief, leadership is not an innate trait but a set of learned behaviors that become habits over time. Research shows that only 30% of leadership ability is genetic, while 70% is learned. This means anyone can develop leadership skills through deliberate practice and habit formation.

Unconscious behaviors. Many ineffective leadership behaviors are unconscious habits formed over time without awareness. For example, Laura the ER nurse didn't realize her argumentative and sarcastic behaviors were preventing her promotion. By becoming aware of these unconscious habits and deliberately practicing new behaviors, anyone can improve their leadership skills.

The power of habits. Habits are automatic behaviors triggered by specific cues, making up about 43-47% of our daily actions. By harnessing the power of habit formation, we can transform our leadership abilities with minimal conscious effort. The key is to identify the micro-behaviors that make up effective leadership skills and turn them into habits through consistent practice.

2. The Leader Habit Formula: Simple exercises for lasting change

"The Leader Habit Formula takes advantage of the power of chaining."

Simple, consistent practice. The Leader Habit Formula breaks down complex leadership skills into simple, 5-minute daily exercises focused on specific micro-behaviors. By practicing these exercises consistently, you can turn effective leadership behaviors into automatic habits.

Key components:

• Cue: A natural, embedded trigger for the behavior
• Behavior: A simple, specific action to practice
• Reward: Intrinsic satisfaction from performing the behavior

The 66-day rule. Research shows it takes an average of 66 days of consistent practice for a behavior to become a habit. The Leader Habit Formula incorporates this timeline, encouraging practitioners to commit to at least 66 days of practice for each exercise to ensure the new behavior becomes automatic.

3. Sustaining practice: Make it easy and intrinsically rewarding

"The secret to sustaining practice is to make it as easy as possible—and that's exactly what the Leader Habit Formula does."

Minimize effort. To sustain practice, it's crucial to make the exercises as easy as possible. The Leader Habit Formula uses simple, 5-minute daily exercises that can be completed even on low-motivation days.

Align with personality. Choose exercises that align with your personality traits to make them intrinsically rewarding. This increases the likelihood of consistent practice and successful habit formation.

Track progress. Use simple tracking methods like calendars, smartphone apps, or habit-tracking applications to monitor your practice. Seeing your progress increases motivation and helps sustain your efforts over time.

4. From micro-behaviors to full-blown skills through chaining

"Leadership skills are chains of micro-behaviors."

Breaking down complex skills. The Leader Habit Formula breaks down complex leadership skills into their constituent micro-behaviors. This approach makes it easier to learn and practice each component separately before combining them into a full skill.

Chaining process:

1. Identify micro-behaviors that make up a skill
2. Practice each micro-behavior separately
3. Combine micro-behaviors to form the complete skill

Keystone habits. Some habits trigger a chain reaction of behavioral change, transforming multiple aspects of your leadership. Identifying and developing these keystone habits can accelerate your leadership development and create widespread positive changes in your behavior.

5. Identify your leadership style and personality traits

"To understand which leadership skills are intrinsically rewarding for you, look to your personality traits."

Leadership styles:

• Task-oriented: Focus on getting things done, planning, and organizing
• People-oriented: Focus on relationships, motivation, and support

Personality traits:

1. Curious
2. Organized
3. Caring
4. Outgoing
5. Ambitious
6. Resilient

Aligning skills with traits. Identify which leadership skills align with your personality traits to find exercises that feel natural and rewarding. This increases the likelihood of consistent practice and successful habit formation.

6. Task-oriented skills: Getting things done effectively

"Task-oriented leadership skills are about getting things done."

Key task-oriented skills:

1. Manage Priorities
2. Plan and Organize Work
3. Delegate Well
4. Create Urgency
5. Analyze Information
6. Think Through Solutions
7. Make Good Decisions
8. Focus on Customers
9. Sell the Vision
10. Innovate
11. Manage Risk

Importance of balance. While task-oriented skills are crucial for achieving goals and driving results, it's essential to balance them with people-oriented skills for overall leadership effectiveness.

7. People-oriented skills: Building relationships and influencing others

"People-oriented leadership skills are about keeping others engaged, motivated, and satisfied."

Key people-oriented skills:

1. Influence Others
2. Overcome Individual Resistance
3. Negotiate Well
4. Empower Others
5. Mentor and Coach
6. Build Team Spirit
7. Build Strategic Relationships
8. Show Caring
9. Listen Actively
10. Communicate Clearly
11. Speak with Charisma

Developing relationships. People-oriented skills focus on building strong relationships, motivating team members, and creating a positive work environment. These skills are essential for long-term success and creating a high-performing team.

8. Overcoming resistance and negotiating win-win solutions

"Overcoming individual resistance means eliminating people's reluctance to change by addressing their fears and objections and convincing them to take action."

Addressing resistance:

1. Acknowledge fears and emotions
2. Highlight personal benefits of change
3. Find areas of agreement
4. Focus on shared goals

Win-win negotiations:

1. Communicate intention to find mutually beneficial solutions
2. Engage in collaborative problem-solving
3. Explain value and positive impact of proposed solutions
4. Specify and agree on next steps

Building trust. By addressing concerns and focusing on mutual benefits, leaders can overcome resistance and build trust, leading to more effective change implementation and successful negotiations.

9. Empowering others and building team spirit

"Empowering others means giving them decision-making authority and providing support without removing responsibility."

Empowerment strategies:

1. Allocate appropriate decision-making authority
2. Provide support without micromanaging
3. Set check-in points and milestones
4. Coach through barriers and roadblocks

Building team spirit:

1. Advocate for team cohesion
2. Establish daily team-building activities
3. Suggest procedures to accomplish team goals
4. Link individual assignments to team mission

Creating engagement. Empowering team members and building a strong team spirit leads to increased engagement, productivity, and innovation. It also helps retain top talent and creates a positive work culture.

10. Effective communication: Active listening and charismatic speaking

"Listening is a core leadership skill."

Active listening:

1. Ask open-ended questions
2. Restate and summarize
3. Ask probing questions for deeper insight

Charismatic speaking:

1. Communicate with energy and passion
2. Use vivid, engaging language
3. Incorporate stories, similes, and metaphors

Clear communication:

1. Include only relevant information
2. Organize messages around key points
3. Respond with short, focused messages

Impact of communication. Effective communication skills, both listening and speaking, are crucial for building relationships, motivating team members, and conveying ideas clearly. These skills form the foundation for many other leadership abilities.

11. Coaching others to develop Leader Habits

"Coaching to Leader Habits is about providing the support people need as they work through the process of developing new leadership skills."

Stages of habit development:

1. Not ready (unaware of shortcomings)
2. Contemplating change
3. Ready for action
4. Early attempts
5. Practicing
6. Over-learning (mastery and automaticity)

Coaching strategies:

• Develop internal tension to create insight
• Surprise contemplators by exploring benefits of current behavior
• Explain the Leader Habit Formula and find appropriate exercises
• Facilitate reflection using the EAR (Expectation-Action-Result) framework
• Increase self-efficacy by discussing past successful practice
• Manage expectations during the over-learning phase

Supporting growth. Effective coaching involves meeting people where they are in their development journey and providing appropriate support at each stage. By using these strategies, coaches can help others successfully develop new leadership habits and improve their overall effectiveness.

Last updated: November 2, 2024