Leadership Habits
Given the importance of employing your character strengths, there are several ways to develop and grow your strengths. Developing and growing your character strengths, the traits that help you accomplish tasks, is vital. It takes time, but a little every day is working towards the milestone of mastery. Many may be too busy or not otherwise have the time to develop their strengths, but a few minutes each day is worth it.
Most of us can find the time for this every day, a small sacrifice for bettering ourselves, leadership skills, and our team. Build a consistent schedule and turn developing your character strengths into a habit. It is an important goal to work towards, and growing practices surrounding betterment are vital to our success as leaders.
Of the ways to develop your strengths, there are:
- Curiosity
- Creatively
- Kindness
- Gratitude
- Honesty
- Bravery
- Love
- Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
- Leadership
- Perspective
Curiosity itself encompasses self-learning. Set aside a few minutes to look up something new, a new topic, and discover something you did not know before. Broaden your knowledge and share it with others. Creativity involves setting aside some time each day to brainstorm new and innovative ways to serve your clients and your team better. If one wants to employ kindness, check in with a colleague or member of your team and ask them how they are doing and what works well for them. What can be improved? Gratitude involves self-reflection, setting aside the time to think of someone you helped that day and how you impacted those around you.
Similarly, honesty involves self-reflection as well. You are being honest about one’s mistakes and criticisms and addressing possible realistic solutions. Bravery pertains to speaking up on debated topics, speaking your mind, and being unafraid to share your opinion with colleagues. Love is the appreciation of finding out how your work today will positively affect someone in the future. Read into how past clients have appreciated your work. Setting aside time for appreciation and beauty is as simple as a walk-through of nature or photographing something that you find beautiful or inspiring. Employing leadership involves reflecting on other leaders you admire and channeling them into your work. Finally, lending time to perspective is simply taking the time to step back and find something that can inspire you to push forward.
Overall, these are simple activities, but they are essential. Setting aside a few minutes a day for any of these can help you develop your character strengths and, in turn, build up your leadership skills and your team’s capacity.
