Great leaders aren’t that way by accident. They share common and effective habits that help them become successful. Find out the top 9 success habits of great leaders that you can implement in your own life.
Successful leaders recognize that their success doesn’t stem from one or two decisions or events. But rather a succession of decisions that are cultivated over time. It’s a journey, a grind if you will, that requires daily commitment. In other words, good leaders understand that success is the result of highly effective daily habits that become part of your routine.
Habits are acquired behavior patterns that are repeated so frequently that they become almost involuntary. They’re powerful subconscious behaviors that operate in the background of our lives and yet they dictate how we think, act, and move through life. Habits, if not reviewed, molded, or reshaped can run amok. However, for those who make the effort to review, understand, and change their habits, these behaviors can form great character and be the driving force that leads to productivity and success.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that great leaders form and share certain good habits that help ensure their success.
9 Success Habits Of Great Leaders
The best, most effective leaders learn and share a variety of key habits that contribute to their success. If you search, you can find long lists of these habits, but I feel these 9 are really the key driving force to success in leadership.
Starting Each Day Offline
In today’s world, we live online. Whether it’s email, social media, television, or internet surfing, these avenues can help form bad habits, increase stress levels, and waste time, when not used in an effective way.
In order to help find that necessary balance, put that device down and be intentional with your time. The best way to keep an intentional mindset with regard to your time is to start your day offline. Meditating, exercising, doing yoga, and reading are all great habits to help jump-start your day in a positive and centered way. Arianna Huffington, the founder of The Huffington Post, practices yoga and meditation every day to keep her stress levels low.
Establishing a Morning Routine
The way you start your day sets the tone for the entire rest of your day. Great leaders focus on establishing healthy morning routines that fuel their minds, bodies, and spirits. Waking up on the right and bright side of the bed makes a huge difference.
Doing this helps them get centered for the day so they can stay calm and make good decisions no matter what the day brings their way. Morning habits of highly effective leaders might include:
- Wake up at the same time each morning
- Get some exercise
- Eat a healthy breakfast
- Dedicate a few minutes to meditation
- Practice daily gratitude
This positive habit will help to develop your emotional intelligence so that you can manage your emotions as well as the people on your team. Fast Company has a few other ideas to help develop your emotional intelligence too.
Taking Time to Reconnect with Yourself
When people work hard toward making goals, they can sometimes get lost in that effort and lose themselves in the process. When that happens, other aspects of life suffer. If leaders avoid taking time to themselves, it can cause inefficiencies all the way down the line.
Great leaders who want to be successful in the long term will take time to occasionally step away from the work, the goals, and the company. In order to reconnect with themselves, reevaluate their goals and decide on a path forward. Effective and confident leaders know that success means needing to pivot or change focus on occasion, and that can only happen by taking time to reconnect with yourself and your “why”.
Implementing Reading Time
One of the best ways to relax, learn, and grow is by reading. Books share ideas, inspire our creativity, and teach us about the lessons that other people learned. The best leaders have wisdom that they received from reading books.
If you think reading isn’t your thing, that might change once you know that reading:
- Reduces stress
- Makes you smarter
- Increases your knowledge
- Improves memory
- Grows your vocabulary
- Improves your reasoning skills
- Is fun
Not sure where to start? Try asking others what they’re reading. Or search for the top self-development or business books. The more you can learn about yourself, your business, and your strategy, the more successful you will be as a leader.
Practicing What You Preach
Good leaders will preach about having values such as following the Golden Rule. As any founder and CEO of a company knows, if you preach about certain values, you need to really live by them on a daily basis. Consistency is key.
Being More Organized & Accountable
In order to be an effective leader, you have to stay organized so that you know what’s going on and are able to strategically make the right changes when needed. You also need to be accountable for those necessary changes when things don’t go well so that those same issues don’t repeat in the future.
Take ownership of your organizational habits as well as your accountability with your team, and they will trust you and appreciate your honesty.
Nurturing Relationships
Great leaders don’t find success on their own. It takes a team working with them, and it takes support from family and friends.
The best leaders know that relationships in all facets of their lives are integral to their success. Working toward a goal shouldn’t be done at the expense of personal relationships. In the same vein, business relationships can be extremely beneficial when it comes to solving problems. People are motivated by a leader who is in the trenches with them. Additionally, if you spend all your time focusing on business or your goals and not enjoying life, you’re completely missing the point of what success really is.
Take time to nurture your relationship-building skills. And while it may seem counterintuitive that playing with your kids can lead to more success, finding a balance between business and pleasure leads to more enjoyment and relaxation which makes for more effective leadership. Former President Barack Obama made it a point to have breakfast and dinner with his wife and daughters every day to keep those relationships strong.
They Credit Their Team With the Win
Leaders are just that – the person in charge. While they may make some important and key decisions, they rarely do all the brainstorming or the grunt work on a project. Highly successful leaders don’t need the limelight and take the time to evaluate what went well – and what didn’t.
Then, they take it a step further by owning the contributions of the big-picture effort and effectively communicate that by giving credit to those team members who made the success possible. And this is one of the best ways to breed long-term sustainable success.
Have Healthy Food and Exercise Routines
Really good leaders know that in order to operate at optimum capacity, you need to take care of your body physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And great health starts with taking good care of your body physically.
A good diet, good sleep habits, and plenty of exercise will help you have focus, energy, and endurance to get through your day. Evan Williams, the founder of Twitter, takes time out of his workday every day to get in a strenuous workout which helps improve his energy levels and mental clarity for an afternoon of work. If you have goals you want to strive toward, try implementing these success habits of great leaders and see the difference they make in your life and in accomplishing your goals.
What Do All Leaders Have In Common?
Leaders are people who get things done and make a positive impact on the world. In order to do that, they must be able to listen and build relationships with others. They must also be willing to have their opinions expressed clearly, even if it’s unpopular, in order to positively impact their chances of success.
Stephen Covey identified four practices that highly effective people practice: active listening, building trust through transparency, building a team around you, and acting with integrity. He also believed that leaders should have a vision for where they want to go and then work together with others to achieve it.
Recent Comments