If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with purpose-driven leaders, it’s that most have the best of intentions. Yet sometimes those intentions manifest in the worst of leadership habits.
As leaders, we aim to inspire, motivate, and drive our teams toward success. But despite our earnest efforts, we can sabotage our effectiveness without even realizing it. Our leadership habits—those routine behaviors we repeat regularly and often subconsciously—can hold us back if they build barriers to the results we intend to achieve. See if these three habits might resonate with you.
Doing it all yourself
“I can never do enough.” In my well-being seminars and coaching sessions, this statement echoes as a common refrain. If you’ve ever felt the weight of the world on your shoulders, maybe it’s because you’re trying to do it all. Delegation and prioritization aren’t just buzzwords, they are superpowers.
When you take on everything, you risk burnout and send a message to your team that you lack focus and don’t trust their capabilities. By empowering your people, you not only free up your own bandwidth for high-value activities, you also boost your team’s sense of confidence and engagement.
Going with the flow
It’s easy to get swept up in the daily grind, reacting to whatever comes your way. But leaders need to steer the ship, not just ride the waves. Being effective means being strategic—setting clear goals and having a roadmap to achieve them. It’s means avoiding the lure of shiny objects and false urgency in favor of a well-thought-out path.
Sure, it’s important to be agile and adapt to changing needs, but the best strategies allow for flexibility and make it easier to choose the best things from all the good things. You’ll know you’re on the right path when you truly believe that you can make a greater impact by doing fewer things better.
Thinking you understand
There are more ways to communicate than ever before, yet communication remains one of the workplace’s most significant challenges. George Bernard Shaw’s insight that, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place,” is an eye-opener for leaders who assume they know what their employees want.
Consider the story of a new leader who kept hearing her team express a desire for professional development. Eager to meet this need, she showered them with opportunities to grow. Yet, during the organization’s strategic planning process, it emerged that those efforts did not address the root of the issue. Somewhere, there was a disconnect. After digging deeper, we discovered what the team really wanted was more clarity around their roles and expectations. What seemed obvious on the surface was something very different in reality.
Assumptions can be the enemy of clarity. They can pile on efforts that ultimately lead us down the wrong road. Fortunately, leaders can avoid this trap by asking good questions—multiple questions—to get to the heart of an issue. When this curiosity is followed by actively listening and repeating what you thought you heard, you can help ensure your interpretations hit the mark. Want to fine-tune your leadership habits? Explore our coaching packages, which provide a supportive framework to shed light on your blind spots and build the self-awareness and skills that foster your success.