Cultivating Positive Habits: A Guide for Managers and Teams

“Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits. How in shape or out of shape you are? A result of your habits. How happy or unhappy you are? A result of your habits. How successful or unsuccessful you are? A result of your habits.

What you repeatedly do (i.e. what you spend time thinking about and doing each day) ultimately forms the person you are, the things you believe, and the personality that you portray.”

-Excerpt from Atomic Habits by James Clear

As a manager, you have an opportunity to create the life that you want, not only for yourself, but for the team members you lead. By understanding habits, how they are formed, and the impact of habits on individual productivity and team performance, you can use the science behind habit building to radically transform your life and work and the lives and work of your team members. This article will explore how managers can instill positive habits that elevate both their own performance and that of their teams

Understanding Habits

According to Atomic Habits, “The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. Breaking it down into these fundamental parts can help us understand what a habit is, how it works, and how to improve it. This four-step pattern is the backbone of every habit, and your brain runs through these steps in the same order each time.”

1. Cue: The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior.
2. Craving: Cravings are the second step of a habit, and they are the motivational force behind every habit.
3. Response: The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action.
4. Reward: Rewards are the end goal of every habit.

By understanding the science behind habit formation, you can better manage your habits and the habits of your team members. As a manager, you have a significant role in shaping the habits of your team by either cultivating positive habits or allowing negative habits to form. The first step toward cultivating positive habits is to recognize the difference between them and to take early action in cultivating positive habits.

Building Positive Habits as a Manager

As an effective manager, there are several key habits you should cultivate with your team, including effective communication, prioritization, and continuous learning. By setting the example as the leader and practicing these habits, you are helping to cultivate positive habits for your team members.

• Effective Communication: The first positive habit is effective communication. This includes electronic, verbal, and written communication. Effective communication is critical to being an effective leader. By not communicating clearly and regularly with your team members, you are creating an environment of ambiguity. This can create a challenging environment to work within.
• Prioritization: The second positive habit is prioritization. As the leader of a team, your people should be your top priority. Period. This includes your family and the team members you lead. By setting an example of prioritizing the people in your life, you are encouraging your team to prioritize the people in their lives, which has a ripple effect.
• Continuous Learning: The third positive habit is continuous learning, also known as having a growth mindset. As a leader, you should strive to learn something new everyday. This can be accomplished by reading articles, blogs, and books, listening to podcasts, or attending conferences, training, and workshops. You should also encourage your team members to adopt a growth mindset and practice continuous learning. For example, the use of artificial intelligence in your work is a great opportunity to learn new skills and also make your work more efficient. There are many opportunities to learn new skills. Check out available training through LinkedIn Learning.

Leading by Example

As a manager, it is incredibly important for you to model positive habits for your team. Some ways in which you can demonstrate desired behaviors through your actions include your approach to work, your daily routine, how you interact with everyone, and healthy behaviors. Let’s take lunch breaks for example. If you sit at your desk working through your lunch break, you are setting an example for your team members to do the same. While you may not have that expectation of your team members, your actions speak louder than any words. Instead, you could set an example by getting out of your office for a walk or some exercise or invite team members to join you for lunch outside at a picnic table or at a local restaurant. This type of behavior could radically change your team’s culture and environment, thus increasing engagement and productivity.

Empowering Team Members

Some strategies to support your team members in building positive habits include providing resources, feedback, and recognition to facilitate habit formation. As a manager, you can provide resources for your team members, such as information, programs, or services to help build positive habits. An example includes the Wolfpack Wellness program at NC State, which helps employees and students understand the wellness resources available to them. You can also provide feedback to your team members regarding their habits. For example, if you notice a team member practicing a positive habit, celebrate that habit by acknowledging it.

Finally, provide recognition to facilitate habit formation. For example, the Wolfpack Wellness Badge Program recognizes the completion of engagement in experiences that expand personal knowledge across the six elements of wellness: purpose, financial, physical, emotional, social and community. If you really want to set an example by empowering your team members, consider serving as an NC State Wellness Champion or team captain for the Miles for Wellness program through the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources.

Overcoming Challenges

As humans, change is not easy, especially major changes. However, by committing to making small positive changes to our daily habits, we can experience significant positive impacts. Small consistent efforts lead to big results over time. With any change, there will always be challenges and obstacles to overcome. According to Quintessential Health, "Some common obstacles to habit formation and maintenance are that old habits are hard to break and one of the most common reasons people are not successful is that we want to make the change all at once. If the goal is too ambitious, it is neither realistic nor sustainable. Insufficient rewards is another common pitfall. Sometimes the new behavior doesn’t have any immediate rewards, and people forget to add their own rewards."

Also according to Quintessential Health, some tips for success include:

• Be flexible!
• Make it routine.
• Plan ahead.
• Pair it with something you already do.
• Make it a SMART goal. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)
• Plan for lapses!

Conclusion

In conclusion, as a manager it is up to you to cultivate positive habits for yourself and your team members. The first step is deciding to make a change, then begin working on cultivating new positive habits. A great summary about habits is from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

Start small by focusing on one habit today. One small step can lead to significant transformation!

Dave Herpy serves as Extension Organizational Development Coordinator at NC State University in Raleigh, NC, where he is responsible for developing and implementing professional and leadership development programs for a workforce of over 1,000 employees with NC Cooperative Extension Service, working in collaboration with their Extension leadership team.? He is also an NC State Wellness Champion and competitive triathlete.? He is passionate about helping individuals and organizations achieve their highest potential and considers himself a lifelong student of leadership.? His greatest adventure in life is being a father of four.? He has an A.A. from Lakeland Community College, a B.S. in Leisure Studies from Kent State University, and an M.S. in Recreation and Sport Science from Ohio University.