The Leader Habit

I am not sure if you are aware of this or not but you create habits without realising that you have done so. Habits are formed by simply doing something on a repetitive basis. It is like walking or driving your car, at one time it was something that you had to think about and concentrate on to be able to do. Now you do it without thinking.

We are constantly forming habits in all aspects of our life. When we form a habit, we can then free up our conscious thinking to do other things. So we can drive to work without thinking about the driving process and instead we think about what we need to do today, we think about our plans for the weekend, etc. In fact we arrive at work and sometimes can’t even remember the journey because it was all handled by our subconscious.

Now here is another interesting fact; we can’t get rid of a habit by stopping it. Our brain does not understand or have the ability to simply stop a habit. If we no longer want to have a habit, then we need to replace it with something else. For example, telling you now to do something is not as helpful as telling you that I want you to do ‘this instead of that’. Now I have given you something to focus on and by doing that you will replace the previous actions (or habit).

So what habits do leaders have that make them effective? In other words, what do leaders do that makes them successful?

Leaders find habits that work for them. They find ways of doing things that get the desired outcome and then pursue them, practice and create them as a habit that they no longer need to think about and as a result are done automatically

Like any good habit it is best when you base it on a belief or value that allows the habit to be formed, developed and refined. For example, showing people that they are important to you, is a habit that needs a belief, and that belief is that people are valuable to you and your organisation. If you don’t like people, then forming the habit will be hard and not last.

So what beliefs do you need to adjust to allow you to develop the right habits? Have you got beliefs about your people (or some of them) that are actually holding you back from helping them to be successful? Do you even realise that you may have become the reason that they are not successful, because you have a habit that stops you even noticing that they have potential?

Do you realise that you may have habits that limit you from being the best person you can be? We can develop a habit due to a situation in our lives or because of a situation that arose, and then act as though that’s how we should always behave and develop the habit accordingly.

Last week I saw, in a school, a Teacher who had developed the habit of sending pupils out of the room when they did something that he was not happy with. In fact, if they started to do something that even looked like it was wrong, then he sent them out of the room. He had perfected the habit to the level that he had stopped listening to what the pupils would say to him, because he perceived that they were only trying to defend their behaviour.

I was outside the room listening and interviewed each child that left the room. In EVERY case they told me that it did not matter what they did anymore because the teacher would not listen! They admitted that they were sometimes in the wrong but it did not matter if they were right or wrong, the teacher was more interested in telling them what he thought they were doing wrong, than he was in helping them find the right behaviours.

Is sending the kids out of the room for bad behaviour the wrong thing to do? No, there are circumstances when they need that type of discipline, but to do it as a matter of course is a habit that is actually undermining the teacher and their ability to be effective as a teacher.

I see it with sales people who have developed the habit of giving their sales pitch. Is their sales pitch wrong? No, of course not! However, when it is done as a habit and without consideration for the listener, then it is not going to be effective, even if it is the right sales pitch.

It is the same with leadership and the way we lead people and manage our business or our team. If we create a habit and do things in a habitual manner without consideration for the circumstances, then the habit can work against us. In other words we can be doing the right thing, but creating the wrong outcome.

So let us look at some of the beliefs and habits that we can develop.

Bear in mind it starts with your belief or values. So if we say that an important part of leadership is getting the most out of our people; then we need to start with habit that ‘people are important and people are valuable to us’. Based on that, we need to find habits to show people how we value them and their contribution.

Belief: People are important to the success of the business

Habit: Acknowledge people, catch people doing things right and notice their strengths before their weaknesses.

Belief: Having a focus, strategy or plan is important.

Habit: Constantly talk about the focus, direction or plan and relate everything that is done by everyone to it. Measure progress against it at all times.

Belief: People need to know where they stand with me

Habit: Always be honest, make sure that people hear from me first and not through the grapevine, listen more than talk.

These are simple examples but the point is important. Many people don’t know what habits they need to develop and instead they spend their time reacting to situations and that is not leadership. In fact it is a habit in itself!!!!! Yes, reacting to things is a habit that we can very quickly fall into if we are not careful.

So my questions for this month are:

What habits do you need to develop and what value or belief do you need to have for them to be built on? What current habit do you have that you need to replace? What habits did you have that you have already replaced with a new habit that is not as effective?

That last question is interesting because we can sometimes replace a habit without realising that we have done so. A business leader told me the other day that he “use to be good at listening” but discovered that he wasn’t as good any more. When we got into it we discovered that he had replaced the habit of listening with telling people what he had learnt or what he knew. He was stunned that he had allowed this to happen until he realised that the change had occurred when the business had gone through a hostile takeover bid and he had needed to act quickly to rescue the situation. Now the situation had passed but the habit he had developed had stayed.

The last element of this is to consider; how many of your habits are creating habits in other people? Are you the cause of the habits they have or are you part of helping them to create the right habits?

Have a great month and I hope this months thoughts and questions have made you think about your habits and helped you to be the best you can be.

Best wishes

Download PDF