11 Habits of Strong Leaders

Habits, either good or bad, make the leader.

Here’s a simple example:

An employee comes into your office to speak with you. You have a few choices of how you handle this situation. You can tell the employee you’re too busy to talk right now and you’ll get back with them later. Or, you could encourage the employee to talk with you. While the employee is talking to you, you’re reading and responding to email and, when the phone rings, you ask the employee to stop speaking for a moment while you answer the phone. Some executives we work with even have televisions in their office and take pride in being able to watch their stock ticker on CNBC and listen to others, all at the same time. Last, you could encourage the employee to come into your office. To ensure you give the employee your undivided attention, you could, for example, ask the employee to join you at your conference table or perhaps you could push away from your computer so you will not be distracted. If the phone rings, so be it. You know that, by not answering the telephone, you’re sending a strong message to the employee that they’re more important than an email or a ringing phone.

Whatever your actions, there’s a good chance that you do what you do out of habit. TheFreeDictionary.com describes a habit as a recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. These frequent leadership behaviors or habits are consistent and predictable. Most people like to work for leaders who are consistent with their decisions and predictable in their behaviors. In fact, it’s difficult for others to willingly follow you if they see you as inconsistent and unpredictable. By far, the most difficult form of management inconsistency is a leader who’s labeled and described as moody. When a manager is moody, what’s good one day is bad the next, no one knows what to expect.

When talking about leadership and habits, it’s hard not to bring up this popular saying from Mahatma Gandhi:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”

Although great leaders have different habits, in studying great leaders over the last twenty years, the following common habits have surfaced. Which behaviors are habits for you?

1. Focus on accomplishments, not activities or “things to do:” Many people use a “things to do” list. If you are like most people, you are never able to get everything done on your list. Great leaders have a habit of accomplishing the most important items on their list.
2. Do the right thing: The right thing may be overriding a policy or procedure that is not applicable in a specific situation. The right thing may be to spend more time on the people or relationship aspect of the business rather than crossing another goal off your list. Being honest, especially when it costs you a lot to be honest, is the right thing to do.
3. Be personally accountable: Great leaders have a habit of taking responsibility when they do something wrong or the team doesn’t hit the goal. When things go wrong, they are able to say, “I take responsibility to see this is corrected and doesn’t happen again.”
4. Give credit for success: Great leaders quickly realize that if none of their team members showed up for work tomorrow, it would be almost impossible for the leader to be successful. Give credit where it is due…to the people who actually do the work.
5. Bring value to the team: As a leader, a great question to ask is, “Why does this team even need me?” It is important to be able to answer this question by continually increasing the value you bring to the team. Your value may be one or more of many things: your vision; providing leadership in the area of innovation; it may rest in the long-term relationships you form with clients; your ability to get calmer in stressful situations. No matter what it is, the value you bring most likely is one of the big reasons that team members chose to follow you.
6. Find time to think: There’s a really strong chance that the value you bring to your team is your problem solving ability, your ability to innovate or create new ideas, products or services, or your ability to enable your team to be even better. If all you do is operational tasks, then you have lost your ability to think. Great leaders ensure that operational tasks are well delegated which frees up their time to think and add value to the team.
7. Work on cool stuff: Great leaders know that to be successful and stay on top of your game, you need to continually improve. What projects or cool stuff are you working on with your team to make tomorrow even better for your team, your company, and your clients?
8. Continuously learn, accept feedback and take action: Managers know that being a great leader isn’t easy. If it was easy, there would be a lot more leaders in this world and management consultants would be unemployed. Becoming a great leader takes continuous learning. When we think about learning, it’s easy to think about a formal education. However, great leaders know that some of the best learning comes from listening to others, accepting feedback and acting on what you learn.
9. Lean into and resolve conflict: Leaders who don’t have the habit of resolving conflict need to hire consultants to help them resolve conflict and build teams. Great leaders have the habit of getting closer to conflict, discussing the tough topics, and resolving issues.
10. Be responsive: A lack of response, directly or indirectly, sends the signal that you don’t care. People who aren’t perceived as caring have a harder time being followed. Whether it’s a phone call, email or text, great leaders have the habit of getting back to you in a timely manner.
11. Take care of the power plant: Be physically fit; eat right and get plenty of sleep. With these three habits working for you, it’s a lot easier to stay positive, motivated and lead others to a better tomorrow.

How many of these eleven behaviors would you describe as habits you own and practice daily? Which behaviors would you like to make a habit? As Lucas Remmerswaal, the author of The A-Z of 13 Habits: Inspired by Warren Buffet, says it…”Just do it! First you make your habits, then your habits make you!”