Leadership doesn’t happen by accident. The best leaders develop and evolve habits that help them be their best self so they can grown in their career, and help those around them. Here are five healthy habits that will help new leaders:

Reading

“Readers are Leader” is a popular saying attributed to leadership author John Maxwell; and while reading for the sake of it won’t make you a leader overnight, you can be sure the best leaders you’ll meet in your career pick up a book/audiobook regularly.

Leadership is complex because humans are complex. Experience alone is not enough to evolve as a leader and have a positive impact. Dedicating time to expand your perspective is a necessity to be ready to face the challenges that you and your team will face.

Like any most things you do, reading (or listening to audiobooks) take time and repetition before it becomes a habit. You don’t need to spend countless hours a week and read a high volume of books a year. All you need is consistency.

Similarly to investing, the return on this habit is a long term play.

If you pay close attention you will be able to differentiate between leaders who are constantly learning versus those that are just rolling with the punches.

Active Listening

When you start leading teams it takes a while to get used to the idea that you are no longer the protagonist. Your team is. You are no longer the responsible for all the answers but rather facilitating and guiding them to solve on their own.

As a leader, you are expected to advise on situations that are not part of your day to day. You must learn to listen to understand versus listening to reply, as you will need a lot of context to provide the best advise your team needs.

Active listening will force you to ask probing questions, paraphrase what you are hearing to make sure you understood the full picture, asking leading questions instead of given out answers, and more importantly, showcase to your team how to best communicate. 

Resting

Your teams is constantly taking cues from you. What you do, what you don’t, and how you approach situations will serve as an example of how to behave. To indulge un sports analogies: you need to show your team how to be on top of your game; and there is no sport in which fatigue leads to optimal performance.

Resting and doing activities that are not worked-related is crucial for your well-being. As a leader, you need take care of your mind and body to be able to lead from a place of balance. If you are not prioritizing yourself you will burn out, and your team will suffer as a result.

Lead by example and learn how to build healthy boundaries.

Notetaking

As you succeed in your leadership journey your responsibilities will grow, you will deal with more issues, and you will work with a higher volume of people. Learning how to take optimal notes, and having these organized will help avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Relying on your memory alone is not only shortsighted, but also irresponsible. One tool that helps me keep my notes organized is Microsoft's OneNote. For example, I create a dedicated book for each of my teams, and have dedicated sections for each person. This helps me keep track of what we talk during our 1:1s, action items for each, and has become a key part of conducting performance reviews as we can track ongoing conversations.

Balanced Eating

Inputs influence outputs, and this principle applies when it comes to the food that we eat. I’m no dietician, nor am I in any position to tell you what you should be eating. And yet, we can agree that our mood and our overall mental and pyshical energy is affected by our eating habits.

Here are a couple of small steps can have a positive effect in your day to day, and thus, for those you lead:

-          Staying properly hydrated throughout the day is a small adjustment that can have great consequences.

-          Avoiding alcohol the night before a big day to bring your best energy.

-          Staying off added sugars on empty stomach will avoid mood swings resulting from sugar spikes and crashes.

-          Homemade meals can help you have better control what nutrients you get while also being more the cost effective option.  

Developing healthy habits will allow you to grow as a leader. Smaller adjustments will pay off over time and better set you up for success so that you can focus on your goal and have a better impact for the teams that look up to you.