As a leader, what role do you take in your own leadership development?
If 2022 taught us anything, it was the importance of seeing the big picture without losing sight of the small details. This requires a tremendous skill in balancing priorities, energy, and focus. And while most great leaders can take pride in their ability to multi-task under stress, each day tests our abilities.
Leaders are called on again and again to shift their attention from one priority to another. You must consistently and consciously choose (and judge) that which is deserving of their attention. You must ignore irrelevant distractions.
Developing the right leadership skills and habits is critical to personal and organizational success. The Importance of Habits
Consider this: 80% of our results stems from only 20% of our efforts, according to Joseph M. Juran. In the context of our productivity and efficiency, this means that only about 20% of our activities actually provide the results we are looking for, professionally and personally.
In order to devote more time and energy to our most important activities—the people, vision, or mission that give our life purpose—we need to be able to recognize and say “no” to the people, places, and things that distract us from achieving our goals. This isn’t always easy, especially when we really like our distractions, or worse, our distractions become bad habits.
Disrupting the habits that are counter-productive is important, but it doesn’t eliminate them. You see, unless you create a new routine in its place, the pattern will continue automatically. Fortunately, we’ve come to a new level of understanding about habits, and we’re learning and practicing new techniques to improve them. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits says that we need to focus on systems not goals. In future blogs, I'll continue to explore habits.
What do you think? Which of your habits are helpful and which are distracting?
I’d love to hear from you! You can reach me at liz@tracypartnerships.com or learn more about my coaching practice at www.tracycoaching.com and on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.