Leadership Level-Up 2-Week Challenge

Are you ready to propel your leadership skills to new heights? The Leadership Level-Up 2-Week Challenge inspires focus, clarity, and transformation for your leadership development journey—in as little as ten minutes a day. By taking a couple weeks to zero in on your growth with practical, daily actions, you can give a powerful boost to your vision, strengths, skills, and habits. Start your 14-day challenge today!

Day 1: Revisit (or define) your vision

Get back to your “why.” Dedicate 15-30 minutes to reviewing your leadership vision (or defining it if you haven't already). The answers to these three questions will create the foundation for your 2-week challenge and your leadership journey.

• What does being an excellent leader mean to you? Summarize it in one or two sentences.
• What are the core values that drive your leadership? Make a list of three to five.
• What specific behaviors show great leadership in action? List five to seven.

Day 2: Get intimate with your inner saboteurs

Everyone has an internal critic. Instead of letting your inner saboteurs get in the way of realizing your leadership vision, you can work to improve your relationship with them.?

Take 20 minutes to watch this Ted Talk by Shirzad Chamine, author of the New York Times bestseller Positive Intelligence. Get intimate with your inner saboteurs and start building a plan to tackle them. If you have some extra time today, fill out the Positive Intelligence saboteur assessment to really zero in on your personal inner critic.

Day 3: Identify your strengths

How do you counter your inner saboteurs so you can reach your full potential? Lean on your strengths! Today’s the day to define them.

• Think of a couple leaders you admire, whether they are public figures or people from your own life.
• List the strengths they exhibit that make them influential leaders.
• Circle the strengths you think you possess or could develop.
• Reflect on your professional success and consider the strengths that helped you achieve them. Add those strengths to your list.

Now you have a collection of the strengths at your disposal that you can leverage to overcome your inner critic and uplevel your leadership. Post the list near your desk as a daily reminder.

Day 4: Apply your strengths to your saboteurs

Put your list of strengths into practice! Think of a real circumstance in your professional life that raises one of your inner saboteurs. It could be something happening now or on the horizon.

Using your list of strengths, write out how you can respond to the situation without the interference of your inner critic. What strengths will help you overcome the saboteurs that could get in the way of success??

Voila! You have a script and an action plan you can put into practice for tackling your challenge.

Day 5: Nurture your network

Building relationships is an outstanding way to increase your leadership impact. Think of three people in your network with whom you haven't connected in a while and reach out. Ask what they’ve been up to, share an interesting article, or schedule a time to catch up. Whatever it takes to keep that relationship flourishing!?

Day 6: Overcome uncertainty

Uncertainty is unavoidable, but powerful leaders face it head-on. Spend a few minutes today reading this short article on navigating uncertainty. Think of an area of uncertainty in your professional life right now, and jot down a plan for how you’ll handle it directly. Instead of avoiding it, practice navigating uncertainty with confidence!?

Day 7: Take action on one of your goals

Pick one of your goals for the year and take a single, tangible action toward it. It doesn't have to be complicated—small, focused, ongoing actions are the key to achieving even the biggest aspirations.?

Day 8: Practice active listening

Effective leaders tend to listen more than they talk, and honing your active listening skills is a crucial component of cultivating your leadership presence. Choose a time today when you can practice active listening. It might be in a meeting, a one-on-one, or on a phone call. During that interaction, follow these steps:

1. Pay attention: No multi-tasking or rehearsing your response while the other person is talking.
2. Withhold judgment: Hear everything others have to share before making any conclusions.
3. Clarify: Ask curious, open-ended questions to ensure you understand.
4. Summarize: Reflect back what the other person has said.
5. Add value: Share your response with the goal of furthering meaningful discussion.

The more you practice, the more effective your active listening skills will become.

Day 9: Lift up others

Leadership isn't all about you—it’s about being that rising tide that lifts all boats. Which of your team members have gone above and beyond, achieved something significant, or shown a commitment to growth? Take a few minutes today to thank them for their work and make sure others know about their success.?

Day 10: Try habit pairing

When you develop powerful habits, increasing your leadership capacity becomes an ingrained part of your daily life. It can be overwhelming to add yet another item to your daily to-do list, so make it easier with habit pairing. Try this exercise today:

• Write down a list of leadership habits you'd like to develop—those small yet meaningful actions you want to work into your daily life.
• Brainstorm all the daily habits you already do, no matter how small — even brushing your teeth counts!?
• Select one habit you want to develop that would pair well with something you already do, and do them together today.?

For example, you could identify your three most impactful action items for the day as you sip your morning coffee. Or, perhaps you could review your leadership values in the minutes before your daily stand-up meeting. However you choose to pair them, your daily habits will reinforce each other.

Day 11: Set and enforce boundaries

When you’re overwhelmed with day-to-day responsibilities, it’s easy to lose sight of your leadership journey. Boundaries are crucial to avoiding burnout and performing at your best. It can be daunting to set boundaries, so start with setting just one today. It only takes about 10 minutes, but the benefits last much longer. Here’s how:

• Take two minutes to read this article on boundary-setting.
• Look over your calendar and to-do list for the coming weeks. What’s one thing you could let go of or hit the brakes on? Look for things that take time and energy without much return — a meeting that’s not productive, a task you could delegate, a project without strategic value, etc.
• Say no to one of those things, and plan what you'll do with the time and energy you'll free up by setting that boundary.?

Day 12: Ask for feedback

How do you know if your leadership is effective? Ask! Today, identify at least three people from whom you can request feedback.?

Send each a quick email asking them to share one thing about your leadership practices they value and one thing they wish you would start doing. Consider asking people you supervise as well as peers and those you report to—you'll get a 360-degree snapshot of your leadership impact and how you can grow.

Day 13: Tackle difficult conversations

Are you avoiding or anticipating a difficult conversation? Make a plan to face it head-on today.?

• Schedule the meeting with the person you need to talk to.?
• Spend a few minutes writing out what you’ll say and how you’ll say it.?
• Rehearse the conversation aloud by yourself or role play it with a trusted colleague.
• Take a deep breath, and get it done.?

Use this article for guidance on how to approach difficult conversations with confidence and make them truly effective.?

Day 14: Plan your professional development?

How will you commit to your ongoing growth in the next six weeks? Make a plan now! Look for a workshop, conference, leadership program, or one-on-one coaching opportunity that would contribute to your leadership growth and get it on your calendar.?

While you’re at it, identify professional development opportunities for your team as well. When you support their growth, you amplify your leadership influence and improve performance across the board.?

Challenge accepted!

Cultivating your leadership journey is an ongoing practice. Spend a couple of weeks nurturing it every day, and you’ll unlock real results. Once you’ve accepted the 2-week challenge, make a plan to keep it going indefinitely. The M-Power Compass tool helps you chart a course for personal and professional success by bringing together your goals, motivation, and the tangible actions that will get you to your destination. Nurture your growth, maximize your impact, and discover the keys to influential leadership — amplify your legacy today.

Amplify leadership in your organization with professional development programs, workshops, and 1:1 coaching from Momentum Partners