5 Tips to Help Leaders Adopt the Habits They Need to be Successful

You've probably heard the phrase, "Old habits die hard." This holds significant truth, particularly when assisting leaders in embracing new habits in the face of change. It's among the toughest challenges an organization can face. Frequently, new behaviors fail to become habits, leading to wasted time and resources. Consequently, leaders end up feeling frustrated, confused, and disengaged. It's crucial to intensify efforts now to ensure their success. Here are five tips to help them adopt the new habits necessary for success.

Shift Your Focus. Frequently, organizations fail to establish the appropriate target. While they might identify capability gaps, they often settle for leaders who exhibit certain behaviors temporarily. However, they quickly realize that leaders revert to their previous actions. Since behaviors aren't instinctive, leaders must consciously decide how to respond in specific scenarios. Instead of concentrating on behaviors, aim to promote the development of leadership habits. Habits are instinctive, automatic responses to particular situations. Even under pressure, habits persist. They are triggered by specific cues. Every habit follows a pattern: a cue, a routine, and a reward, often manifesting as a sense of satisfaction.

To assist leaders in adopting new habits for the long term, encourage them to link specific cues with certain actions. Support them in finding ways to consciously practice particular behaviors within their work. Then, provide extrinsic rewards for those actions. Over time, as leaders perceive and experience progress, their intrinsic motivation will develop. Remember, a single response to a cue is merely a behavior, which is insufficient for celebration, especially at the organizational level. For a behavior to transform into a habit, it must be consistently practiced by each leader until it becomes automatic. Only then will it become an integral part of the organizational culture, and that is the time to celebrate.

Make it Easy. Most individuals prefer the path of least resistance, and this concept extends to the work environment of leaders. It's easy to overlook the significant impact that the work environment has on leaders and their habits. Even minor, seemingly unimportant factors can influence them. Consider identifying these factors by assessing the leaders' environment and how it affects their habits. Then, create a choice architecture to facilitate better decision-making for leaders. Achieve this by implementing strategic changes in the environment, making the desired habits more accessible for leaders to adopt, while making less desirable habits less convenient. By doing so, leaders will gradually embrace the right practices.

Disregard Conventional Milestones. A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology by Philipa Lally and her team revealed that forming habits can take between 18 to 254 days Lally et al. (2009). This implies that leaders may require up to eight months to develop a new habit. To assist leaders in forming new habits, it's crucial to set expectations early and frequently. Concentrate on a few, highly effective and simple leadership behaviors they should adopt.

Develop a plan to assist leaders in transforming these behaviors into habits through the consistent practice of cue, routine, and reward. This reward typically manifests as a feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction. As you design the strategy, prioritize the development of the habit over the duration it takes for leaders to establish it. This approach differs from traditional leadership initiatives, which are often short-term and time-oriented. Rather than aiming to develop habits by a specific date, concentrate on integrating people, processes, and technology by that date to deliver the appropriate cues and rewards. Subsequently, monitor leaders' progress, offer feedback, and adjust the cues and rewards within their work environment.

Consider Emotions. If leaders lack the motivation to change, they won't, regardless of your efforts. When there's a necessity for leaders throughout the organization to adopt new habits, motivation shouldn't be overlooked. Although it shouldn't be your primary focus, it should remain in your peripheral vision and be addressed. In my experience, organizations frequently try to assist leaders in discovering motivation by:

• Telling them what did wrong or making excuses for what they did. This is often heard as, “If we only had…” Or, “The previous team…” Unfortunately, this leads them to make excuses and rationalize what they are doing.

• Telling people, “they must," "opt-in," or “buy-in” if they want to continue to be successful. This feels forceful and compliant.

• Asking leaders to complete a self-assessment to find areas of opportunity. Then, work on those areas. This can sometimes work. Though, the challenge is that most people lack the self-awareness to identify opportunities for improvement. And, even if they do, they may not be ready to change.

• Sending them to corporate training. I learned this the hard way. This is often viewed as compliance. When leaders see something as compliance, you'll get compliance. While this might serve you well in the short-term, it won't provide long-term value.

Consider adopting a different strategy. Begin with emotions. Indeed, even in business, emotions cannot be overlooked—especially feelings of progress and achievement. These can be highly motivating, far more so than dwelling on the negative. You can inspire leaders to embrace change by focusing on each leader's individual emotions. Encourage them to feel like they are advancing. Establish short, visible, and attainable goals. Then, communicate the progress of the leadership team as a whole. Each time a milestone is reached, help them acknowledge it. This will strengthen feelings of success and accomplishment, motivating them to continue.

Training? Um...No Thank You. This might seem counterintuitive to many, including my former self. However, motivating leaders to change through training can be challenging, especially if it's mandatory. Developing habits requires time, sometimes up to eight months. If you truly want leaders to adopt lasting behavioral changes, don't push them into a corporate training program. That approach feels obligatory and can quickly demotivate. Instead, concentrate on cues, behaviors, and rewards. Then, communicate. Then, communicate repeatedly. Use communication to inspire leaders to change their habits willingly. If you intend to enroll every leader in a program, ensure there's a genuine knowledge and skill gap for each leader. Otherwise, consider an alternative method. One option might be to allow leaders to opt-out. This gives them the chance to find their own motivation and maintain a sense of control.

Assisting leaders in embracing new habits and practices within an organization is a challenging task. However, there are numerous strategies you can employ to achieve significant progress. Here are five approaches we have found beneficial when collaborating with organizations. What methods do you utilize?