Published: September 18, 2023
Key Takeaways from Global Leadership Summit 2023
Global Leadership Summit 2023, or GLS, is a two-day TED-Talk-style experience designed for current and emerging leaders. There were many great speakers, and to cover even a fraction of them would be well beyond the scope of this blog post. So today, we will be focusing on my favorite speaker, James Clear.
James Clear
James Clear is a leading expert in habit creation. You have probably heard of his book Atomic Habits. His weekly email newsletter “3-2-1” has more than 1 million subscribers. He was one of our team’s favorite speakers. Here is why:
James’ talk reframed his Atomic Habits talking points into the perspective of a leader helping themselves AND their teams create positive habits. He has four “Laws” of habit creation:
- Make it Obvious
- Make it Attractive
- Make it Easy
- Make it Satisfying
Each of these topics and how they relate to leadership could be their own posts. He also has inversions of these laws that outline how to break a habit, but we will stick with habit creation and how it applies to leadership.
We are going to equate habits to goals, as they are very closely related.
Make it Obvious
Like with anything in life, you cannot track habits or goals unless you are aware of them. Just like a leader cannot help their team succeed if there is no clear vision or success metrics. Let’s say you have a business goal that is not being met. How can you help shift your team’s focus toward this goal? A great place to start is by consistently checking in on your progress while reaching your goal.
Make it Attractive
Incentives drive human behavior. James talks about creating a “motivation ritual.” He relates it to doing something you enjoy before working on a difficult habit. This leaves leftover dopamine in your brain to the point where you will start to correlate the dopamine release with the once-difficult habit.
This could also be achieved through celebrating progress with your team. Each time a milestone towards a goal is met, give your team a little reward. Learn what motivates your team, then act on it.
Make it Easy
Once a goal or habit has been made trackable (obvious) and achievable (attractive), the next step is to make it repeatable (easy). There are many ways you, as a leader, can easily make a task repeatable:
- Coach a team member on the task.
- Hire a new team member to complete the task.
- Hire an agency to complete the task.
In doing one of these three things, you can remove something from your plate, help instill positive habits in your team/organization and scale your team. This not only helps you and your organization but also the people around you.
Make it Satisfying
You’ve done it all at this point. You have a clear goal that you enjoy working on, and the process is comparatively easy to what it was before. The daunting part is done; now it’s time to reward your team. That’s the most important part: reflect on the process and how you can make it easier. Find the next goal and start the process over again!
Conclusion
Are you still digesting the content and figuring out how to infuse it into your business strategy? If you’re struggling, we can help! Fill out our contact form to keep the conversation going – leader to leader!