Keystone Habits: The Hyperlink to Elevating Your Leadership Impact

 

In a compelling and insightful book entitled, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg coined the term “keystone habit,” to refer to a select group of habits that help to supercharge our success. 

A keystone habit is no more difficult to form than any other habit, yet it provides the most benefits.

In particular, there are three things Duhigg claims that keystone habits do: 

• They extend small senses of victory - By completing a keystone “habit loop,” as he calls it (cue - routine - reward), we’re filled with a sense of accomplishment. It’s a small win that we can then build from, acting as the foundation for success.

• They act as the soil from which other good habits grow - When we complete a keystone habit loop, we’re more inclined to engage in other good habits. For example, when we exercise, we’re likely to drink more water, take a vitamin, and eat healthy meals.

• They provide you with energy, confidence, and the momentum to achieve more - As the keystone habit becomes solidified in our daily routine, it helps to build momentum. When we see progress in our leadership impact using a keystone habit, it creates a platform to engage other leadership behaviors.

In architectural terms, the keystone is the centermost stone in an arch that helps to interlock and hold the other stones in place, yet it bears the least weight. Without that keystone, the arch would collapse; it’s an integral part of the structure. Similarly, a keystone habit is an integral part of any good habit routine. 

Not only are they no more difficult to form, but they also help to promote other good habits while also helping to eliminate bad habits. In short, if you want to supercharge your impact as a leader focus on developing a set of keystone habits that will support and empower you.
 
Fundamentally speaking, habits themselves play a key role in our lives. In fact, where we are right now, today, has more to do with our habits than anything else considering that 45% of all human behavior is habit-driven. A large part of what we think, say, feel, and do are primarily controlled by our habits. 

The short cut to developing leadership skills and accelerating your influence is finding your keystone habits. Leadership skills are really chains of micro-behaviors.  And research has revealed that leadership skills are clustered into two distinct groups. The first group is called getting things done and second is focusing on people.

A keystone habit is most likely to start a chain reaction of behavior changes within the group of leadership skills where it conceptually belongs. For example, if you develop a tasked-oriented skill like Manage Priorities, the habit will likely spread to related skills, such as Plan and Organize Work, Create Urgency, Analyze Information, Make Good Decisions, or Delegate Well, because all of these skills focus on getting things done. But the same habit is unlikely to influence people-oriented behaviors like Listen Actively, Show Caring, Or Mentor and Coach.

Most Likely Keystone Leadership Habits 

Getting Things Done

The three leadership skills that are most strongly related to all other task-oriented behaviors are:

1. Plan and Organize Work
2. Manage Priorities
3. Create Urgency

Focusing on People

The three leadership skills that are most strongly related to all other people-oriented behaviors are:

1. Influence Others
2. Overcome Individual Resistance
3. Coach and Mentor

Great leadership have skills that belong to both groups—they get things done while focusing on people. Based on the situation, they automatically respond to their habitual behaviors, sometimes providing support and other being directive. In order to be a great leader, you too, will need to develop or improve skills in both getting things done and focusing on people, so you will need to establish at least two keystone habits, one that accelerate your development of skills in each group.

Keystone habits work because they focus on making a dynamic change in your impact as a leader They produce a trickle-down effect. Soon you will notice more opportunities for improvement from the keystone habits that you're forming.

Success with a keystone habit happens when you take that first step. Right now, make a list of all the leadership habits you'd like to develop or improve. Pay close attention to the ones that can have a ripple-effect in your role.  Then focus on forming this habit over the next 60 days. You'd be surprised at how this small change can generate many positive outcomes.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

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