Tiny Habits, Big Change

One of my clients recently came to a session wanting to discuss personal and professional goals for the coming months. One of the goals was to improve her playing of a musical instrument. My client, “Patricia”, was however struggling to follow through with her commitment to practicing her instrument. She would schedule the time in her calendar and then move her practice time or let it go by. She wanted to figure out how she could change this.  

Why habit forming is important for leadership development

1. Insights from one set of habits can be applied to other new habit goals
What does this have to do with leadership and professional development? In our discussion, Patricia identified a key piece of relevance. She felt that if she could identify what was holding her back in this example of playing her instrument that she could unlock what would make a difference for her in other areas such as her business and professional development. Patricia also discovered in our session that in order to make this habit more accessible to her that the practice needed to be meaningful, flexible and feel like a choice. These were all discoveries that could be applied to other habits and behaviors she desired to change. 

2. Habits make leadership competencies actionable
Over the past few months I’ve been presenting to travel and hospitality groups about The 7 Habits of Transformational Leaders. Transformational leadership is a leadership style focusing on inspiring and motivating team members to create exceptional results. As I was creating the idea for this leadership competency workshop, I knew that I wanted to frame it within a set of habits that helped guide leaders to integrate transformational leadership into their leadership toolbox. The reason for this is that when thinking about leadership styles, it isn’t always obvious how to translate how different styles are executed in day-to-day scenarios. In order to be able to implement it, we need to identify smaller tangible and actionable behaviors that put it into practice and achieve the desired results. In other words, we need habits.

3. Building small habits successfully fosters self-efficacy and motivation
A recent webinar provided by James Garrett, a Brain Coach and Neuroscience Entrepreneur, confirmed the reason that small habits are the mothership of all other competency development. According to Dr. BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits, when we want to accomplish something we often set out with big goals and high motivation. If the habit is difficult, long, and/or complex, our motivation can begin to slide because we don’t see or recognize intermediate successes. This can lead us to drop the habit altogether. If we begin with habits that are easy, short, and/or simplified, we see quicker results which can motivate us to continue, expand and reach for bigger and longer term goals. 

Leadership development is a life-long journey that is rewarding but very challenging. If we can build successes and increase our motivation with any kind of habit, we can improve our “beliefs in our ability to influence an outcome”. This itself is the core meaning of what it means to be a leader. 

How to build habits that stick
Let’s go back to Patricia’s challenge around building her instrument playing habit. As we explored this, it became clear that the challenge was not related to having available time, but was rather a matter of practice feeling inaccessible, more like a chore than a desire, and even burdensome. 

Further discussion revealed that freedom of choice was an important value of hers. Because practicing her instrument was feeling like a chore, she felt that her value of freedom was being challenged. With this discovery, we were on to something and we could work on how she could come back into alignment with her values and remove the barriers that were making it difficult to follow through on her commitment to practicing her instrument. We set out to answer the question: what would make playing her instrument feel like a choice? This was after all the reason why she started playing her instrument in the first place. 

The scenario above demonstrates many research based findings around habit forming. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear posits that behavior change is driven by three levels - outcome, process and identity. All three are important, however, identity based changes are the most powerful and lead to habit formation that sticks. 

Patricia was very clear about the outcome behavior she wanted- to improve the quality of her playing so that it was music to her ears. However, her process based goals and behaviors were underdeveloped and the hidden conflict with her values and identity was becoming an obstacle to achieving her goal. 

Through our coaching session, Patricia was able to identify what process based changes and goals she could have that would make her practice more accessible and allow her to see progress. For instance, getting more comfortable with holding her instrument. 

Patricia also tapped into what would allow her to feel like playing was again a choice by deciding that she would be more flexible about what practice looked like and follow the feeling of what would bring her joy in that moment of playing. Instead of demanding herself to practice for an hour, for example, on some days a 30 minute practice might feel more right for her. This was an important discovery about how she could re-align with her value around freedom of choice and therefore create an identity based behavior that sticks. 

Implement your habit forming operating system
According to James Clear, long term results depend on the implementation of an effective operating system. Clear identified a four step feedback loop process for building better habits.

1. Make it obvious (Cue)
2. Make it attractive (Craving)
3. Make it easy (Response)
4. Make it satisfying (Reward)

Check out this infographic for a quick guide on how to implement this operating system. 

Tiny habits can indeed lead to big changes, both personally and professionally. By identifying and addressing the underlying values and motivations that influence our behavior, we can create habits that stick. As seen in Patricia's journey, aligning habits with our core values can transform a burdensome task into a fulfilling and enjoyable activity. This approach not only applies to personal goals, like learning an instrument but also to professional development and leadership. By breaking down larger goals into manageable, meaningful habits, leaders can foster self-efficacy, sustain motivation, and ultimately achieve transformational results. The key to successful habit formation lies in making it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. So, start small, stay consistent, and watch as these tiny habits lead to big, impactful changes in your life and work. Are you interested in building your leadership habits and influencing impactful change? Let’s chat!