For coaching clients looking to strengthen their leadership skills, habits that they have either embraced in the past or over the course of their coaching engagement often turn out to be catalysts for improvement, helping them reach new levels of success and allowing them to continue thriving in their roles.
Here, 20 Forbes Coaches Council members share some of the regular habits and intentional practices their leadership clients have adopted. New and aspiring leaders alike can check out their tips below to unlock their own potential and achieve remarkable results along their leadership journey.
1. Writing Down Wins
Consistently writing down their wins (big or small) creates what I like to call a “not-too-humble brag list.” Not only does doing this tremendously boost your confidence and leadership skills, but it expedites your growth as a leader, as you can more easily recall your accomplishments and leverage that knowledge throughout your career. – Eliana Goldstein, Eliana Goldstein Coaching
2. Cultivating ‘Think Time’
In the dynamic landscape of today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) reality, leaders find it difficult to think beyond current perceptions. They find themselves swept up in a river of reactivity. Cultivating CEO “think time” is a habit that breaks the reactivity and allows leaders to be more strategic. Guarded thinking time pays dividends for relationships and business results. – Tom Rosenak, Diamond Mind Enterprises, LLC
3. Leveraging Their Feminine Gifts
Our clients thrive by bringing their feminine gifts into their leadership. Qualities such as intuition, empathy and collaboration allow female leaders to lead with authenticity and leverage their individual strengths to drive their teams to success. – Julie Santiago, Julie Santiago Inc.
4. Using An Old-School Planner
One of the biggest challenges that leaders face today is time management—there is so much to do and only so many hours in the day to accomplish it. One surprising trick that has helped my leadership clients is returning to an old-school type of time management product or agenda, such as a FranklinCovey planner. Sometimes, seeing it in black and white helps them realize how they can better prioritize. – Susannah Robinson, Partnership for Talent
5. Dedicating Time To Themselves
Becoming selfish enough to dedicate time to yourself is what supports thriving. Take time to replenish, listen to your thoughts, identify how you feel, do something to feel good and align yourself. Lead by doing this for yourself. Show yourself and others how making time to be selfish not only benefits you, but others as well. – Christine Meyer, Christine Meyer Coaching
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
6. Remembering That It’s Okay To Make Mistakes
Human beings are emotional first and logical second. Reminding leaders that they, too, are human and that it is okay for them to make mistakes is very important for leadership health. Helping them understand that mistakes are great opportunities to showcase their leadership and that it is never too late to press the reset button allows leaders to reinforce their commitment to those they serve. – Dr. Monika Sumra, BUNKA Inc.
7. Getting Outside Every Day
Getting outside in nature for a walk, run or swim at some point during the day has helped my clients to reconnect with what is most important to them. The change of scenery, the change of perspective and the physical movement activate new ways of seeing and addressing challenges. By taking some calls as walking meetings, clients report a greater alignment with a higher sense of purpose. – Shelli Hendricks, Blue Horizon Solutions
8. Responding To Failure In A Productive Way
Responding to failure in a productive way is a habit that leaders can cultivate for their benefit. Start by assessing your role in it; next, ask whether the attempt that led to failure was worthwhile. Then, reflect on the learnings from the failed endeavor, which contributes to uncovering valuable insights, nudging you away from excessive scrutiny of the past and toward the planning of future actions. – Sheila Goldgrab, Goldgrab Leadership Coaching
9. Calculating Impact Versus Effort
Are leaders really calculating the time they need to complete their tasks and attain the outcomes they desire? Having a realistic measure of how impactful a task is and the accurate amount of time needed to complete it makes it easier to assess how successful or not one will be with that particular task. This ultimately determines one’s success and creates a thriving career. – X. Carmen Qadir, Coaching & Consulting Experience, LLC
10. Practicing Gratitude
Waking up daily with a positive mindset and appreciation for your health and the boundless opportunities to make an impact is paramount. With this energy and frame of mind, leaders can foster an environment of inspiration and motivate others to do the same. – Tinna Jackson, Jackson Consulting Group, LLC
11. Always Looking For Trouble
A surprisingly effective habit leaders in my coaching program develop is to “always be looking for trouble.” This isn’t a negative attitude about their team or the work environment. Rather, it signifies the importance of leaders proactively identifying issues that need their attention. This ongoing search for meaningful improvement builds trust, credibility and confidence among their team members. – Paul Glover, Paul Glover Coaching
12. Celebrating Daily
One habit that has helped my leadership clients thrive is to take a step back and practice celebration. We don’t give ourselves enough credit. I encourage clients to schedule a time at the end of the day to ask themselves what wins (big or small) they are celebrating that day. What are they grateful for, both professionally and personally? Daily celebrations keep motivation high. – Joyel Crawford, Crawford Leadership Strategies, LLC.
13. Rewriting Their Narrative
By consciously rewriting their narrative, leaders can exchange negative or limiting beliefs for empowering ones. This reshapes their view, fostering confidence in their strengths and helping them focus on what’s possible. Through daily practice, they confidently tackle challenges and seize opportunities with curiosity, inspiring and empowering their teams and creating a ripple effect in the overall organization. – Martha Jeifetz, Martha Jeifetz – Coaching & Advising
14. Doing Less
One surprising habit that has helped our executive coaching clients thrive at the senior leadership level is doing less. Executives often rush toward problems; we have found that they can be more impactful by pausing to provide room for teams to find or propose their own solutions. – Precious Williams Owodunni, Mountaintop Consulting
15. Getting Enough Sleep
Get more sleep! When starting coaching, my clients are sleeping five to six hours per night, on average. Some do this because they’re too busy, and some do it because they can’t fall asleep or because they wake up at 4 a.m. and are unable to fall asleep again. I educate them a bit on how sleep works and the immediate benefits of getting enough of it in terms of energy, health, relationships, decision making and more. – Krumma Jónsdóttir, Positive Performances
16. Taking At Least 30 Minutes Of Personal Time Daily
One surprising habit that has helped my leadership clients thrive is blocking out at least 30 minutes daily for themselves. It’s a counterintuitive technique, because they feel that they should be doing something for their families or the business at every moment. They have found that taking personal time allows for decompression and recalibration, making them more productive, energetic and focused. – Jevon Wooden, BrightMind Consulting Group
17. Building A Personally Curated Playlist
Among many other “secret strategies” leaders use to get in the right mindset (such as power poses, practicing conversations aloud and visualizing), one idea is building a playlist to help them become who they want to be at any moment. From calming themselves down before a tense exchange to pumping themselves up for a big win, listening to the right music in a personally curated playlist gets them ready. – Joelle Jay, LRI
18. Committing To Doing Things Differently
Committing to doing things differently than they always have done is an action my clients have taken that has helped them thrive. Many have been stuck in their ways, realized it wasn’t working and had the courage to take the step to do things in a different way that did work—much to their surprise! – Lisa Rangel, Chameleon Resumes LLC
19. Setting Up ‘No Fly Zone’ Hours At Home
Many of my clients struggle to manage and prioritize both work and family. They’ll say, “I think I treat my work family better than my own family.” We discuss setting up “No Fly Zone” hours at home, when they don’t check emails or answer calls and they’re fully present with their family. Their family life improves, and so does their energy for work. – Justin Patton, The Trust Architect Group
20. Pursuing Interests Outside Of Their Comfort Zones
I encourage clients to spend time on interests unrelated to their jobs that challenge their comfort zones. I modeled this by starting traditional Okinawan karate in my forties. One client is taking singing lessons and might audition for a Broadway show. Another client took up boxing in her forties. A CEO I met is a competitive gold-medal ice figure skater in her seventies! The possibilities are endless. – Barbara Anne Gardenhire-Mills, Purpose-Filled Solutions & Evolutions
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