To drive success, leaders need to cultivate habits that steadily shape an organisation’s direction and results. What we need to remember is that we shouldn’t have everything in place at the outset, but recognise that slow, instead of steady, wins the race and that a business becomes the sum of a number of parts. So let’s show you a number of essential habits the entrepreneurs who stand out ultimately practise.
Decide Every Choice With the Goal of Growth
Setting the intention to grow your business should form the cornerstone of your daily practices, and this goes beyond increasing sales or hiring more staff; it means applying a growth mindset to every aspect of your operations. Opportunities in every interaction should be sought out, so you can identify trends, act on information quickly and embrace change. Growth should be woven directly into your company’s DNA.
Set and Consistently Track Daily Goals
Successful enterprises don’t only chase long-term ambitions, but they break them into small, actionable goals every day. Establish what you want to accomplish before your workday starts, and this can increase accountability, maintain the momentum and act as a stepping stone towards bigger targets.
It’s all about that regular progress tracking to ensure the time is spent wisely and accomplishments are visible. When you implement those daily goals, you’re also working hard at ensuring there is the right level of control over your actions. Decision fatigue is a big thing, and so what it is for you, whether it’s something as simple as laying out your workloads the night before, when you start to establish those little habits that you can do every day, you’re going to slowly step towards the things you truly want.
Prioritise Deep Work
They call it eating the frog now. Tackling the most vital, challenging or impactful tasks first can work to your strengths. The highest performers out there will segment their days, ensuring that they have the energy for deep and focused work, reserving the meetings and busy work for less productive hours.
When this habit is truly embedded, you’ll see the difference because it’s going to relieve stress, because you are getting the big worries out of the way early and clear the path for ongoing productivity. It’s not always possible, however, if you do find yourself struggling to sleep the night before, getting those big duties out of the way first of all means that you’re not going to feel that sense of anxiety invading you throughout the day. As a result, you’re going to be far more efficient.
Stay Curious
Be curious, not judgmental, and when you stop judging things on their own merit, or at least the way you see them, you’re going to be far more innovative and resilient over time. Staying curious is about investing in your ongoing education. It could be very difficult to feel that you need to set aside time to do more, particularly if you feel like there’s not enough hours in the day.
Think about the little things that can permeate your subconscious, for example, just listening to podcasts in the commute to work or taking the time to actually listen to your peers or even competitors, as well as other things like attending workshops, means that you’re going to spur creativity and you’re going to keep your business ahead of emerging trends.
The thing that separates you from your competitor is all about the mindset. You should never be the smartest person in the room, and it takes a lot of courage to actually be someone in charge of a business that’s sitting in a meeting and is actually asking questions. No doubt you’ve encountered so many people in your life who worry about looking stupid. But again, be curious, not judgmental. It worked well for Ted Lasso, and it can work well for you!
Discipline in a Financial Sense
This is something that an accountant will be able to help you with, but if you’re running a small company, you’ve got to review your budgets frequently. This doesn’t mean quarterly or annually, but about ensuring that you do get that right balance. Also, when you’re monitoring cash flow and tracking expenses, you’ve got to do it with a critical eye.
Being vigilant means you’re going to embrace flexibility, and you can support an aspect of calculated risk-taking. So what does this mean? It’s priming yourself to seize opportunities as they arise. Many organisations think they can just reinvest back into the business, but there’s got to be a modicum of minimal risk-taking. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of your profits; it can be as little as 5%, if not lower, depending on your overall finances. But if you start to embed a culture where taking risks is okay, you can learn from mistakes and benefit from more successful outcomes.
Practising Regular Reflection
Reflection is something that’s built into health-related organisations. Sometimes you just need to ask yourself, did today’s work actually move the needle? When you start to become a bit more mindful with your reflections, you are slowly reinforcing your commitment to improving, which will anchor continuous progress and, more importantly, authenticity in your leadership. Reflection is a very important thing.
Reduce All Types of Clutter
The physical and digital clutter is your kryptonite. If you can maintain actionable to-do lists, keep your workspaces and inboxes tidy and use centralised apps and platforms to streamline teamwork, your mind is going to be free to innovate. So many people are digging their heels in when it comes to AI, but it can be far more invaluable to your productivity than you realise.
Foster a Culture of Accountability and Empowerment
Whether you can create content that speaks to the masses or you are selling plumbing supplies, a successful leader will always set a clear expectation, delegate meaningful responsibilities and celebrate autonomy. Fostering a culture where employees feel empowered to execute their tasks, the engagement deepens and your business benefits. Embedding these habits into your workflow doesn’t require perfection; it’s just about the intention and consistency. We just need to keep showing up in the right possible way, and this means that the sum of these daily habits will create true progress in the long run.
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