What Your Habits Say About You

Michael McKinney’s “Leading Blog” has a great post from last month on “20 Habits to Build Your Leadership On.”  McKinney says that, “Most of the actions we take during the day are habits. So, we must be intentional about what habits we develop and why.”  His list of 20 habits fall into 3 categories:  Who am I?  (Be Humble)  Where Do I Want to Go?  (Be Hungry)  How Will I Get There? (Be Ready to Hustle). 

It is the habits that result when we put the answers to those questions into ACTION that define who we are or, as McKinney says, they “create the playbook for your leadership journey.”

Mike Reuter in the “Three Minute Leadership” blog sums it up this way:

Aristotle wrote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Warren Buffet said: “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” John Dryden tell us: “We first make our habits, then our habits make us.” And beautifully Frank Outlaw wrote:

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

In all of my leadership programs, we call the written accounting of these habits, your “Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP).”  Writing your PLP helps you understand your habits and why they are important to you, putting your thoughts into words.  Sharing it with your team allows people to have insight into your character and hold you accountable to “walk the talk,” making sure your actions / habits match your words.  It is a powerful exercise, to which I know many of you can attest! 

For those who have a written PLP, pull it out today and make sure you are meeting the mark, that your habits are taking you where you want to go.  If you need a little course correction, let this be it.  And if you don’t have that written account of your “habits,” let’s work on this together.  Read the “20 Habits” article and put a few things in writing.  I am here to help!

That's Leader Business!