Habits, Character, and Outcomes

In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey taught us to begin with the end in mind. He suggested that while we know there's value in setting and having goals, the greater value is in leading those goals to fruition.?

A workforce can only help leaders drive towards goals if those leaders not only communicate their goals and purpose, but also provide the resources, mandate, skills, tools, and expectations for the journey ahead.

That requires new habits to form among leaders and the wider workforce. Those habits build our character, which determines the success we get to enjoy as individuals. And the sum of those habits can shape the future of an entire organisation.

Essential Habits

Whether a CEO’s aim is to respond to disruption, create strong and sustainable value or fulfil a particular purpose, transformation is now an essential habit, and CEOs are under increasing pressure to balance short and medium-term objectives with long-term goals. They not only need to ensure their business runs well but they also need to go beyond small changes to reinvent the business model, enhance customer experiences, and ensure they have the right people to achieve all that.?

They need to foster the right mindset within their leadership teams, which in turn needs to nurture the right culture across the wider organisation, and the best CEOs are masters of it.

Two Versions of Your Company

It's too easy for any company to say, "we are innovative and transformational". The reality for many is very different when you ask for evidence of innovation and transformation because often the processes and systems they require don't exist. While the words "innovation" and "transformation" create excitement, hope, and job titles, the words often remain rather empty.

Imagine two versions of your company three years from now. Both have the very lofty well-intentioned goals of innovation and transformation that many companies share these days.?

One version of your company would be the result of exactly what it's doing right now. Keep all the traditional bad habits, which you know don't help, but everyone continues to put up with them.

Even though people keep taking about culture, the cultural challenges remain the same. The level of project success remains the same and the trend-lines for profit and market share remain the same. Despite some new technology and projects, things remain pretty much the same.

If habits today at your company continue, despite any talk of innovation and transformation, what would your company look like in three years from now? How about in 2030? If habits remain the same, with the accelerating rate of change in the world, will your company still exist then??

“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day."

- Jim Rohn

The other version of your company is the result of the new habits and systems required to achieve transformation objectives and goals. Would your company look very different from how it looks right now? Would it have introduced new business and operating models?

The habits exhibited throughout your organisation (good and bad) will help determine the success or failure of your company's transformation goals. And yet there is often more focus on changing technology than changing habits.

Good Intentions and Goals

A goal of any CEO who 'gets' transformation will be to steer their organisation towards outstanding levels of success by capitalising on new digital economy opportunities. Similarly, the goal of any professional athlete or sports team is to win. But the reality is that good intentions and goals often don't guarantee success - in sport or business.?

While goals are important and leaders need to set them for direction, if you want transformation results you can be proud of, you need to focus on your objectives, systems and habits. And most people reading this will know that culture plays a massive role in transformation and that culture is shaped by behaviours and habits.

Habits are the small decisions we make and actions we perform every day. And according to researchers at Duke University habits account for around 40 percent of our behaviours on any given day. This means that a business is essentially the sum of its habits, and in our daily lives, we as individuals are the sum of our own habits.

Creating a New Future

It's no secret that transformation is about creating a new future without the constraints of the past. And to transform a business, we need to remove limiting beliefs which keep a company stuck in the past with its old habits and beliefs.

Old habits can keep workforces and leaders doing what they've always done, despite their best of intentions to participate in transformation. That's one reason why many companies are talking about transformation, while far fewer are really doing it. The furthest some companies are going involves small change initiatives enabled by new technology, which they label as transformation. This in itself is an unhealthy habit that deludes many people.

If habits account for around 40 percent of our behaviours on any given day, and systems also help define how we work, leaders need to do what's necessary to ensure their people go about their work with the right behaviours and systems, to achieve the objectives required to reach the company's goals.

But how do you change habits among thousands of people in established companies? Who will kill the habit of labelling any project involving technology as transformation? What specific actions will leaders and change agents take to achieve the required outcomes?

In his book "Atomic Habits" James Clear refers to four stages of habit, which he describes a habit loop. A cue for a habit triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

Read How To Start New Habits That Actually Stick

While different change management approaches have grown up over the years, most of which look good on paper, having the people who can effectively use those tools is a different ball game. It’s one thing talking about a change process that involves people, but quite another to implement it and get the living, breathing results that the CEO wants.

A Sense of Pride

Many companies don’t succeed at helping employees change, despite talk of people and culture and investing heavily in financial incentives and training programs. The problem is that they often neglect an essential aspect of what motivates people, which is their emotional commitment.

Good leaders set clear direction and create momentum by focusing on results. They understand the processes required for change in the business and among their people.

Great leaders on the other hand also focus on the behaviours required for results as well as the results themselves. They use their emotional intelligence to bring about powerful change, nurturing a sense of pride among their people. And pride is powerful. Far more powerful than command and control.

These great leaders empower people to be the best they can be by adopting the right habits. These are the leaders who orchestrate successful transformation. The leaders who recognise that transformation is so much more than setting strategy and executing projects with new technology.

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Consider This ...

What new disciplines are you encouraging people to practice every day? And what errors in judgment are you helping them avoid?