We all have our habits. One we all have in common is brushing our teeth every day. When we want to maintain, improve or master something, creating habits and practising them are an important part of the journey.
Whether you're a musician or an athlete perfecting your skill, or you're simply keeping up with oral hygiene, you know that embedding that habit in your daily life is important.
The same is true of the new language of leadership, stresses Michael Ventura, the author of Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership. He based the book on the lessons learned as the founder and CEO of the award-winning strategy and design practice, Sub Rosa.
At its core, the new language of leadership is about having a deeper understanding of the people in your organisation, your customers and other stakeholders to solve complex problems in creative ways.
But why is it so important to make the new language of leadership a habit? The reason is the same as why we brush our teeth every day, why athletes practise their sport regularly, why musicians practise their instruments daily, or why we have to practise any language.
MAKING IT NATURAL
Whether you're trying to avoid negative effects or achieve mastery in a particular area, developing a habit or consistently practising something is what makes these things become a natural part of you.
So here's how we begin making the new language of leadership a natural part of our everyday lives.
The first step is to understand yourself and be aware of your way of leading. Ask yourself questions: What are your limitations? What are your biases? How do you react to certain people in certain situations? How do you lead your people?
The point of these questions is to be self-aware. We're all humans and have our own perspectives and biases. Your truth may not be someone else's truth so you'll need to be aware of this.
Another reason why understanding yourself is important is that you need to understand whether or not you're truly on board with learning to speak the new language of leadership. You'll need to set yourself some limits in order to avoid overwhelming yourself.
Additionally, becoming more aware of your responses to others will come in handy later in the second step -- to actually begin. You're now aware of your own limitations, but you'll have to begin speaking the new language of leadership to truly understand yourself and others.
The whole essence of the new language of leadership is to lead your people with that deeper understanding of them. Once you're aware of your way of leading, you'll understand where to adjust. Maybe you need to adjust how much you're listening to someone or adjust the way you usually respond to people.
DAILY REMINDERS
The third step is to create some reminders for yourself. Forming a habit, especially one that you're unfamiliar with, can be daunting. It won't come naturally to you at first, so reminding yourself through triggers or gentle mental prompts is important.
For example, you could set daily reminders in the form of Post-it notes on your desk or notebook -- places you're likely to look at the most. They are there to encourage you and also as reminders of what you need to do.
Once you start to get into the habit of using the new language of leadership, the fourth step is to stay consistent. I cannot stress this enough -- practise is the reason why you become better at doing things, but if you do not remain consistent and disciplined at the beginning, you cannot get better at it and allow it to come to you naturally.
The worst way to practise something is to expect that an intense all-day session will make you master something faster. All that does is wear you out and possibly make you resent it. As the popular proverb goes, "Slow and steady wins the race."
Consistency is the same -- starting small and doing things consistently allows you to slowly develop the habit, incorporating it in your daily life and normal behaviour. Even keeping up with reminders can help you to stay consistent.
All in all, if you want to unlock your potential to become a better leader, your best chance of succeeding is unlocking your people's potential through deeper understanding. But like anything else, the mastery of the new language of leadership lies in understanding its power and consistently practising.
Arinya Talerngsri is chief capability officer and managing director at SEAC, an executive, leadership and innovation capability development centre in Southeast Asia. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or visit www.seasiacenter.com/
