Business leaders have their plates full. Overflowing, really, with everything from executing strategies to ensure their company’s success to maintaining a work-life balance that still allows for quality time with family.
With so much on the go at any given time, how can you ensure you’re the most inspiring and effective leader possible? How do you make certain that you’re practicing the right habits and tactics that will positively impact your team and, ultimately, your business?
Being a great leader is all about the way you manage your team, your company, and yourself. And you've got to make sure that you're in the right headspace in order to make important decisions, guide your workforce, and perform at your best. After all, taking care of your personal wellbeing is imperative for the good health of your professional life, too.
Keep reading to learn more about healthy professional and personal habits you can form, tools and solutions you can utilize, and useful tactics you can implement to ensure that both you and your company stay on the right track.
You can read the guide below or download it for free in an all-in-one PDF. The downloadable version also includes 6 impactful tactics for mastering the art of managing people as well as quick-fix tips for 4 common leadership productivity killers. Check it out by clicking the button below.
Part One: Business Management
Business Management Practices to Drive Strong Organizations
Identify Your Corporate Values and Live Them
Enhance Internal Email Practices
Become a Master of Negotiation
Adopt a Customer-First Mentality
Part Two: Professional Self-Management
Mastering Professional Self-Management
Don't Be Afraid to Think Differently
Exercise Effective Project Management
Adopt a Success-Driven Mindset
Don't Force Yourself to be the Smartest Person in the Room
Part Three: Personal Self-Management
How to Master Your Morning Routine
How to Prevent Your Smartphone from Zapping Your Productivity
How to Adopt a Mindset That Stimulates Success
Embracing the Value of Mindfulness
Simple Tweaks to Sleep, Diet, and Exercise That Can Help You Work Better
As a leader, it’s your responsibility to drive your business forward and ensure its success. You have to possess the ability to make the right decisions for your company – from strategy and direction to products, services and processes.
On top of that, you’re also responsible for keeping the members of your organization accountable for actually executing on all these factors. And as if the demands of running the company weren’t enough, you’ve also got the added pressure of knowing that the livelihoods of both you and the members of your company rely on its success – and your ability to lead it.
So, with so many things to stay on top of and the amount of pressure you’re up against on a constant basis, it’s important to implement habits, tactics and best practices that help ensure your business is performing optimally. Here are nine key tactics to help you do it.
1. Identify Your Corporate Values and Live Them - In her podcast interview with Tony Robbins on transforming corporate culture, Marissa Levin, Founder and CEO at Successful Culture, shared that identifying and living company values is one of the most important things for a business leader to do. Without clear values, the company will struggle, it will remain in a consistent reactive state, and its employees will lack clarity on purpose and direction – both the company’s and their own. Once your business has set its core values, it’s important that you reinforce them to your team regularly to ensure they’re being upheld.
To learn more about how to identify and establish your business’s core values, check out our blog post: Creating Your Company Core Values in 5 Easy Steps.
The best way to do streamline your internal email practices really depends on your business, but there are tactics you can use to streamline the email process within your company. For example, at Outback Team Building and Training, we use an internal email system that categorizes messages into three categories:
In every email sent internally, the subject line contains the designated category as the first thing the recipient sees. This way, recipients can save time opening and reading unnecessary emails since they know which are immediately pressing and which can wait. To get started on enhancing your email practices, do a temperature check with your team to identify any pain-points they might be experiencing with your current email process and gather their feedback on how to improve it. There’s no better source of insight for action than from the people who use it the most!
3. Create an Action Plan - Strong planning and strategy development are critically important. But even the most in-depth market research, analysis and strategizing are pointless unless they lead to action. A great action plan will put a process to your strategies by outlining specific tasks and deliverable dates for each member of your team. Your action plan should include what you or your team are doing, when it’s getting done, who’s accountable, what resources will be needed, and how you’re going to measure that action. To get started:To learn how you can become a negotiation powerhouse, check out our Power of Negotiation program which can teach you to prepare for negotiations, keep your emotions in check, identify good and bad habits, recognize how to influence others, and practice how to close a negotiation.
5. Adopt a Customer-First Mentality - In order to be successful, an organization needs to continuously change and adapt to their customer’s ever-changing needs and wants. To make sure you’re doing so, you should:
The most effective leaders understand this and think strategically in order to identify changes in the market place, anticipate the wants and needs of their current and potential customers and determine how to proactively get ahead of them.
While this idea is appealing in principal, it’s not necessarily always feasible – or appropriate. Instead, you can focus on adopting practices that help make the most out of meetings. You can do this using some simple tactics like ensuring a meeting agenda is developed and circulated in advance, identifying a clear purpose for the meeting, review the attendee list to make sure only necessary parties will be participating, encouraging attendees to “take it offline” when topics go off the rails, and wrapping up meetings with clear and actionable next steps. After all, the purpose of meetings is to make decisions and get things done.
If you want to learn more about how to host the most effective meetings possible, get in touch to learn more about our Effective Meetings training program.
Being a leader isn’t easy. It means juggling multiple balls simultaneously, wearing multiple hats at once, and being accountable for the success of a team and a company. In order to be an effective and inspiring leader, you always need to be organized and on top of every detail.
It’s a big job, but there are seven key tactics you can use to make it more manageable.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it best: “If you’re co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do … If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed … No task is too menial. Just work like hell.”
As a leader, it’s important that you model the kind of behavior you would like to see from your employees, and to perform them with unwavering commitment. You can try things like:
To learn more about the practices you can implement in order to help you lead by example, take a look at our Authentic Leadership program.
2. Don’t be Afraid to Think Differently – “Leadership is about being ahead of the curve and looking forward. A good example of this is when Steve Jobs invented the iPods and iPhones … the iPhone is still one of the most popular consumer products and a testament to the brilliance of Steve Jobs and Apple. I think as leaders, if we use this type of forward thinking, it could contribute to our successes.” That’s the advice of Matt Gordon, CEO of Josco Energy.
And while it’s tough to serve up innovation on demand, there are some fun and interesting ways to stimulate creativity and innovative thinking.
3. Exercise Effective Project Management - Being an impactful leader means being productive, and that entails executing your role and trusting your team to execute theirs. It’s not beneficial to the business for a leader to try to do everything themselves.
As Mike Slaving, CEO of Wealthstake Inc., said, “Leadership, broken down to its three most basic elements, is providing clear direction, securing the appropriate resources – whether human, monetary, or other – and applying force at the right times.”
But all too often, leaders still have trouble delegating the workload and empowering their people to do what needs to be done. Great leaders understand how to let go and trust their team, motivate and inspire their staff, empower people, and give support when it’s needed.
To learn how to master the art of delegation and overcome a number of other common leadership productivity pitfalls, check out our Practical Time Management program.
4. Adopt a Success-Driven Mindset – What do tech billionaire Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin all have in common? They all famously take a salary of one dollar per year, opting instead for lucrative compensation tied to the company’s performance. That’s because they believe so completely that they can make their company successful, they hedge their livelihood on it. It keeps them in a constant mindset of forward-thinking, working hard, pushing the envelope, and consistently improving.
Granted, these people are anomalies in the business world, and most business leaders can’t afford to take a one-dollar annual salary. But you can adopt that same mentality by implementing a few basic goal-setting and performance management tactics:
You can apply these same principles to your business. Conceptualized in by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their book, “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” BHAGs are defined as being bigger, bolder, and more powerful than regular long- and short-term goals. They typically require a ten- to 30-year commitment, but they are exciting and tangible. To set your own company BHAGs, you can take three actionable steps.
That’s because the most successful businesses aren’t built on the smartest person – they’re built on the smartest people. You need the best possible experts across every facet of your business to make it the best it can be. And once you find them, it’s important to empower them to do great work by giving them your trust and ensuring they have the tools and resources they need to work efficiently and effectively.
If you’re looking for a great lead on best practices for empowering employees, check out The Multipliers by Liz Wiseman.
Beethoven began his day with a cup of coffee. Ernest Hemingway would wake at 5:00 am, write, and skip breakfast. Mark Zuckerberg gets up at 8:00 am and checks his messages. Oprah practices gratitude before she even opens her eyes. Morning routines have long been an important custom of successful people in order to prepare for the day ahead. How you start your day sets the tone for the rest of it and, in turn, has a huge effect on the quality of your work.
But here's the thing: there are no "magic" morning routines. While there is research that backs up the value of specific elements of a morning routine (65% of successful business leaders engage in some type of physical activity, according to a study by 21 Day Hero), what works for one person won't necessarily work in the same way for you. Remember this: there is no right morning routine – but there is the right morning routine for you.
That’s because morning routines are very personal, designed specifically around the things that you need to fuel you for your day.
So, how can you build your own effective morning routine? If you're stuck on where to start, here are five great steps to get the ball rolling:
1. Identify What's Important to You - What are some things that make you happy? What are some personal things you would like to make time for, if you could? They could be anything. As you know, your morning routine should cover some of your top personal priorities – whether that includes spending time with family, exercise, eating healthy, walking your dog, or watching the sunrise.
2. Define the Main Tasks in Your Day - The same way your morning routine should cover your personal priorities, it should also generate focus and momentum for your day. So, consider what the day at work will bring you. it is your work more cerebral or physical? High stress or mellow? Figure out what the core demands of your job are and then utilize that insight to inform some of the things you do in your morning routine. For example, if your tasks are high stress, perhaps something like meditation will help you relax and focus.
3. Add Things in Slowly – Don’t Feel Pressure to Do it All at Once - According to a study by the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes an average of 66 days – over two months – for a new behavior to become a habit. But how long it takes a new habit to form can vary, depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstance – anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. So, add your new behaviors into your morning one-by-one, instead of trying to do everything at once and getting overwhelmed. You could start by picking the easiest thing and working your way up to the most difficult.
4. Find the Right Amount of Time for Your Routine - Get a feel for how long your morning routine generally takes. From there, do your best to ensure you’re giving yourself enough time to get through it comfortably:
Either way, give yourself enough time to slot things in so that you aren't rushing through your routine and then racing off to work.
If you’re trying to figure out the right things to implement into your morning routine, here’s a quick list of things to consider and why:
An apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, it can also help you wake up and even provide a healthy alternative to coffee – with its nutrients and natural sugar, an apple can provide a gradual jolt of energy without the caffeine crash.
Drinking warm water with a squeeze of lemon juice is another healthy choice for the morning. Experts at the Edison Institute of Nutrition say that, amongst its many benefits, the concoction helps protect the immune system, aid digestion, and maintain the body's pH balance.
Apple cider vinegar can help stabilize and regulate your blood sugar, according to Amy Leigh Mercree, author of “Apple Cider Vinegar Handbook.” Add a small teaspoon of the stuff into some warm water to dilute the harsh taste.
Meditation allows you to take a step back, connect with yourself, and clear your head – which can be especially useful in the morning, before starting a busy day.
Reading – whether it be an interesting magazine article, your favorite book, or the daily newspaper – can be a great activity to include in your morning routine because it slots in some "me time," can leave you feel inspired, and also provides you with a sense of accomplishment.
According to a recent study by Deloitte, more than one-third of cell phone users worldwide say they check their phone within five minutes of waking up in the morning.
In our digitally-driven day and age, it’s a practice certainly perceived as normal. But is it a good thing or a bad thing?
It seems all signs point to the latter.
Google Design Ethicist Tristan Harris says that, "When we wake up in the morning and turn our phone over to see a list of notifications – it frames the experience of 'waking up in the morning' around a menu of 'all the things I’ve missed since yesterday.’”
That can feed an irrational fear that, by not looking at your phone first thing, you could be missing something important.
What happens when you're a business leader with offices located around the world in different time zones, though? Shouldn't you be on top of what's happening? Wouldn’t it make you more responsible?
Apparently not.
Julie Morgenstern, a consultant for companies like American Express, FedEx and Microsoft, wrote an entire book on this topic: "Never Check Email in the Morning." In an interview with The Huffington Post, she says that, "If you start your day by responding to emails, you'll never recover." It’s because email is reactive and not proactive, she explains.
Ultimately, waking up and scrolling through social media or checking your inbox can be one big distraction that fuels anxiety, derails productivity, and wastes time. Even when you’re trying to be productive by checking your messages, it inevitably produces the opposite result.
And furthermore – you should avoid looking at your phone right before bed, too.
A Harvard study found that the blue light that radiates from our phone screens negatively affects the body’s production of the hormone melatonin, which makes it harder to fall asleep. Late-night exposure could even increase a user’s risk for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, according to the study. And while there is Night Shift – a smartphone feature that turns that blue tint to a softer golden hue – any extra night-time stimulation can indeed disrupt sleep.
The study from Deloitte recommends that users unplug at least an hour before hitting the hay.
So, how can you try to be smarter about using your smartphone?
Whether you're about to make an important presentation or close a massive deal, your performance largely depends on how you feel before you enter the room. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review editor and author Daniel McGinn, nearly every type of performer does some set of steps to help reduce anxiety, increase confidence, and get into the right mindset to perform. The findings inform his book, “Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed,” for which Daniel traveled across the country to visit everything from baseball fields to sales floors to learn how people mentally prepare themselves for high-stress situations.
It's easy to become anxious or overwhelmed when you've got a boatload of responsibilities and high-pressure situations to navigate through. But, ultimately, you can control how you respond to those emotions in order to come out on top in a challenge.
In an interview with Forbes, Martin Turner, a lecturer in sport psychology at Staffordshire University and author of “What Business Can Learn from Sport Psychology: Ten Lessons for Peak Professional Performance,” explains how we experience a physiological response in stressful situations: muscle tension, nausea, increased heart rate. On the other hand, a positive mental approach to the same situation can help you thrive within it. Fear of failure causes us to overthink and, if you’re worrying about how you’re going to perform, you’re more likely to unconsciously self-sabotage.
To mentally prepare for your week, your day, your month, or even just an important meeting, Martin suggests three psychological strategies in order to help you get on the right track.
1. Visualize Success - Visualization is a powerful thing. And when you've got a big challenge looming on the horizon, sometimes it's inevitable that you'll picture the worst-case scenario – exactly what you don't want to happen. But, doing this can be harmful to your performance. Instead, switch the negative imagery in your head to a positive one. Visualize the goal you want to achieve and imagine yourself successfully realizing it. You can even think about past successes you've had in similar situations and envision yourself reliving them.
2. Practice Positive Self-Talk - If your head is swirling with negative thoughts right before a big meeting, chances are your body is going to respond accordingly. The internal conversations you have with yourself are important because they can, influence how you behave. Frame your inner dialogue in a way that helps you feel good and positive about what you’re about to do. Saying phrases to yourself like "I'm strong" and "I will succeed" are good places to start.
3. Have a Pre-Performance Routine - Be mindful of how you spend your time before you have to face a challenge, because it will impact your chances of success. Creating a routine that gets your head in the right space can condition your mind to react a certain way under pressure and also helps you stay in control of your mental state. You could try listening to your favorite music, having a cup of coffee (or an apple!), or even creating a morning routine [link to section] that gets you in the right zone.If you want to try some more physical, hands-on strategies to prepare yourself for success at work, here are a few tactics you can implement both in-office and at home:
According to research by The American Institute of Stress, 80% of workers feel stress on the job. With stress being a leading cause of poor mental health, it's increasingly important to take care of your physiological and psychological wellbeing.
To help in this process, more and more people and major corporations, including Google, Nike and Apple, have been turning to mindfulness. This term refers to:
And while it doesn't eliminate stress by any means, mindfulness can help reduce it by allowing you to be more thoughtful in how you respond to situations and, in turn, have more choice in how you handle your emotions in a difficult moment.
Mediation is a great way to build on this self-awareness. In fact, a study by SAGE Journals found that mindfulness-based meditation can:
What's more, a study published by Psychiatry Research found that mindful meditation can even change the shape of the brain – gray matter, which is responsible for emotional regulation, problem solving, learning, and memory, increases in density with the practice of mindfulness.
Headspace is an app that helps to make practising mindfulness and meditation accessible and easy. The following are eight of their most popular mindfulness techniques, any of which you can try at any time during the day:
Sometimes we don't care for ourselves as well as we should. It happens easily, especially when we have an incredibly busy and demanding work life. We all know what constitutes self-care, but, at the end of a long day, relaxing on the couch and ordering a pizza can often sound a lot more enticing than lifting weights and then cooking a balanced meal.
But if we don't maintain our health, we can’t be successful – at work or at home. Here are the top three fundamentals for good health with some tips on how you can easily add them into your life:
1. Get a Good Night’s Sleep - According to research by the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, lack of adequate sleep can seriously affect your judgment, mood, and the ability to learn and retain information. In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation can even lead to variety of health problems including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. A lot of professionals sacrifice sleep in favor of working longer hours – but, realistically, overworked professionals eventually burnout and, in turn, are less productive. A study by the National Sleep Foundation found that adults need to get an average of seven to nine hours of sleep in order to function properly. Some easy ways to improve your quality of sleep?Joy Bauer, author of “Food Cures” and a nutrition expert on NBC’s Today Show, recommends these five foods for a cognitive boost:
In fact, research from the American Psychological Association shows that physical activity can result in enhanced cognitive processing and provide a boost in feel-good endorphins.
Exercise also has a significant positive impact on overall performance at work. Specifically, a study by the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review on the relationship between physical exercise and job productivity found that active professionals experienced:
Furthermore, research suggests that exercise during work hours can help improve performance, as well. A study by Leeds Metropolitan University explored how daytime exercise affected the experience of more than 200 office employees, comparing their performance on the days they worked out to the days they didn't. The study found that, on the days that the employees exercised, they performed higher, managed their time better, had improved interactions with their colleagues, and were in a better mood overall.
So, how can you begin to easily incorporate exercise into your daily routine? Here are some suggestions.
Download your free and printable PDF version of Actionable Habits and Tactics to Drive Leadership Success or get in touch with one of our Employee Engagement Consultants to learn more about the perfect training and development or coaching and consulting program for you and your team.