Three Daily Habits for Positive Leaders

Begin meetings on a good note. Before jumping into the agenda, invite each person to celebrate one thing that is going well personally or professionally. Priming people with feelings of gratitude unlocks creativity and connection within the group, which can help the meeting proceed well from there.

Check in with a colleague. Tom Peters called it “Managing By Walking Around”, but this doesn’t just have to be done between a supervisor and his or her employee. Anyone can initiate it. Just demonstrating that you see people and care about them and their contributions helps them feel valued and more motivated to do their best work. Not sure where to start? After politely saying “I just thought I’d come over and say hi. Is now a good time?”, just open yourself up to curiosity. Your goal is not to manage and problem solve in these conversations, per se, but to learn and support. Here are some questions to get the ball rolling:

1. What are the big things you are working on today?

2. Which is your favorite project at the moment?

3. What do you enjoy so much about it?

4. What can I or others around here be doing to better support you?

Say a meaningful thank you. People want to know their work has meaning, that it contributes in some way to the larger, noble mission of your organization, and that it makes a difference in peoples’ lives. Here is the formula for a thank you that helps people see the impact they are having. “Thank you for doing x. Because you did that, y is better in z ways.” These actions are not time consuming. They are not difficult. Yet you may be surprised by their potency. Try them every day this week, and see what happens!