20 Actual Ways to be a Better Leader

I was talking to a Leader in another team recently and they were asking me about my journey and some of the things they could focus on to stand out and improve. I reflected on this and made a list.

If you haven’t already, you know what to do:

1. Read - this is by far the cheapest way to develop yourself. Whether it’s biographies, self-health, leadership or business. Reading books will give you ideas, knowledge, wisdom, belief and a huge amount of insights into how to be a better Leader. I try and read 1 book a month. Atomic Habits is my August Book.

2. Document - you have to write stuff down. I see myself as having two brains, my core is for thinking and planning, and short-term output. I then have a digital repository on Notion which I call a Second Brain. That’s for the stuff which I don’t need to hoard in my short-term memory, that’s the stuff that I can look up when I need to.

3. 1% Everyday Rule - focus on being better every day with a goal of learning or improving by 1%. It begins to compound and after a month, quarter and a year you’re a different person. But you have to continue to turn up every day and learn.

4. 80/20 Rule - Leaders have varying responsibilities and it’s very easy to make yourself busy. This easy and busy work is not making you effective. Focus on the important work which is going to give you a massive return. Think 80/20 rule, where can I apply my time to give my team, the business and the customers the biggest return? Where you deploy your time is critical.

5. Humility - just be a good human. Do the right thing and always approach things with the right spirit and intent. Yes, there are rules and processes for “business as usual” but sometimes life happens. A process is for 95% of the time. There are going to be situations where you need to bend or break the rules because you care about the employee and want to do the right thing.

6. Actively Listen - sometimes we speak far too much. Adjust your approach so you’re more aligned to the ratio of your ears and mouth. When you speak, you share what you already know. When you listen, you learn new things. When you really listen, you hear things that are also not being said. That’s when you know you’re doing your job well.

7. Accountability - effective Leaders hold themselves and their team accountable. Raising your standards and making significant progress only happens when your team deliver on their commitments. Live above the line.

8. Emotional Intelligence - is a huge area of focus for all Leaders. Being Emotionally Intelligent is not a destination it’s an ongoing journey that evolves and you continue to learn. It’s something you have to constantly be aware of when you’re interacting with your team and your customers. 5 core areas.

9. Exercise - underrated! Exercise is a keystone habit. This means it unlocks a ton of benefits just by doing Exercise. Exercise makes you feel good, reduces stress, maintains your health, keeps you in shape, helps you sleep better, provides clarity and many more. Leaders need all of these to be their best selves.

10. Breaks - you have to slow down to speed up. You’re never going to be in a productive headspace if you’re always running at max and have so much on your plate. Find time for breaks during the day and regular holidays where you completely switch off from work.

11. Prevention - all good leaders focus on the important work, they live in Quadrant 2. In this quadrant, they’re focused on planning and taking proactive steps to prevent fires from occurring. Good leaders spend less time fire fighting and more time thinking and planning for the road ahead. Remember prevention is better than cure. How do you do this?

12. Team Development - your primary responsibility as a leader is to develop the people in your team. Focus on ensuring each person in your team understands what success looks like in their role and has a path to get there. Once they are crushing their core role, give them stretch projects and work so they can play the level above.

13. Goals - measuring success is vitally important. That’s where goals come in. A goal provides a target, and direction and drives decision-making. You need to know where you want to go so you can line up your next steps. Take a look at this article on how I achieved a 2-year goal within 4 months.

14. Future Self - where you are today is not who you will be in 5, 10 or 15 years’ time. The work and investment in yourself today is going to springboard you into a different version of yourself. Think about contributing and investing in yourself consistently and recognising you can achieve anything. Is what you’re doing today contributing to who you want to be in 5 years’ time?

15. Action Bias - progress over perfection. Sometimes we can over analyse the data and procrastinate. Focus on taking massive action and moving forward. When you take massive action you begin to get momentum and motivation which is a recipe for significant progress.

16. Fail Party - share your misses and failures with others, and encourage them to reciprocate. They won’t be reprimanded, they will be praised for sharing pitfalls with others which they can then learn from and avoid. Think about the costs and time saved by preventing other individuals from making the same mistakes within a business or team.

17. Share over hoard - sharing is caring. Look for ways to contribute and help others to be successful. What you put out has a funny way of coming back to benefit you later down the line. Be in the business of helping others. It’s super rewarding.

18. Energy - remain positive and uplifting. You’re not always going to be thriving but look at the bigger picture and the things that are good. Be super aware of your energy, tone and presence and the impact this has on your team.

19. Open mind - you haven’t seen it all. No one has. New situations are always going to pop up, some things are not always as they appear. So approach things from a neutral view and with an open mind.

20. Your NPS Score - your personal NPS score should be 9 or 10. You want promoters, not detractors. You want people who work with you to have a wonderful experience and want to come back for more and refer you to others. How do you do this? 

Hope these 20 ideas give you some inspiration and things to think about to help you improve. Try to adopt a few at a time rather than trying too many things at once. Building habits is about starting small and maintaining consistency until it becomes habitual.

If you get a chance, please reply to this email and let me know how I could make it better or how it’s helping you.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

• Book - Atomic Habits by James Clear - James highlights in this bestseller that the real change of those good and bad habits comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions – doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call. He calls them atomic habits. There is a ton of scientific backed ideas and stories which will help you build habits to improve yourself, your life and the environment you’re creating.

• App - Blinkist. Do you ever read books and think there was a lot of fluff in there? This app saves you hours with its premium book summary app which condenses hours of reading down into a 10-15 minute summary for you to read or listen to. Try this app to save you time and learn quicker.App - Asana. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. This app is a to-do list on steroids. Get organised and track your daily, weekly and monthly tasks. Best thing is it’s free.

Quote of the Week

Last Weeks Issue: 10 Principles of Effective Leaders

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