Leadership Insights
Practice
The task of understanding and shaping your leadership identity can seem daunting, especially if you try to approach it all at once. But if you shape yourself to be a leader based on small actions, you can transform your leadership philosophy from abstract concepts into lived practice. Rather than declaring, “I’m strategic,” you’ll ask, “What strategic behaviors can I practice today?”
So Why Does This Practice-Based Approach Work?
This shift from identity labels to actionable practices is powerful because it makes leadership development tangible and sustainable. Here’s why it works:
- It offers consistency over intensity. Small, repeated actions build neural pathways and authentic habits. When you practice listening fully in every meeting rather than trying to overhaul your entire communication style, you’re building genuine capability that becomes second nature.
- It grounds values in reality. Values like “collaboration” and “integrity” can feel vague until you translate them into specific behaviors. “I practice collaboration by asking one clarifying question before sharing my perspective” gives you something concrete to work with.
- It allows for immediate feedback and adjustment. You can assess whether a small practice is working within days or weeks, not months. This creates a learning loop that keeps you engaged and responsive to what actually serves your leadership.
Try This
As you move through the week, take some time to identify a value you want to build. For instance, you may highly value kindness in your work and personal relationships. So instead of just saying, “I want to be kind,” identify one or two actions that demonstrate kindness. For inspiration, you can look to the actions of others you consider to be kind. Write down those actions and try to practice them once or twice this week.
Note: We can’t stress enough that you should limit yourself to trying only one new practice this week. If you try to add in four or five new habits, for instance, you’ll probably forget to do them and end up feeling guilty. Building new habits requires consistency and success, so you should keep your new practices to a level that’s manageable with your work.
For example, one action you might try is to practice kindness by acknowledging one person’s contribution in every one of your meetings in a single day. Or you could intentionally interpret an unclear message with generosity, responding with “It sounds like you’re saying…” rather than by expressing confusion.
Whatever your chosen values are, focus on one this week along with a few repeatable actions you can start to build as habits to become a better leader, one day at a time.
If you’re struggling to turn a value into small, practical actions, take your value to Sophia, the AI leadership coach in My Path. Sophia can make suggestions on actions for you to try out.
We’d love to hear about the practices you’re trying out this week! Share with us on LinkedIn by tagging @Academic Impressions and using #DailyLeadershipPractice.
Reflection: Don’t Just Practice Your Values
Earlier this week, we shared how turning your values into small, actionable practices can lead to more consistent, responsive leadership development. We encouraged you to adapt one of your top values into one or two actions to try out this week. We hope you were able to do that!
The Power of Reflection
So often in our work, we don’t pause to think about what’s working for us and what isn’t. Adopting new habits can feel overwhelming if you never get rid of any old habits, for instance. Building in some time to reflect in whatever way works best for you can help you to see the progress you’re making and practice the Sage. The most effective approach to reflection, after all, is the one you’ll use consistently.
As you’re incorporating the new practices you’ve identified, here are some reflection questions to ask yourself in order to help you to assess whether your habits are working. Take 15 minutes to reflect today—journal, talk to yourself in the mirror or the car, go for a quick walk to think, or incorporate any other reflective practice that works for you. Ask yourself:
- Did this practice feel authentic to me, or was I just going through the motions?
- What resistance or ease did I experience while trying a new practice? What would make it easier to continue?
- How did practicing this habit for the past couple of days affect my energy or mood?
Are you struggling to come up with a reflective practice that works for you? Journaling or going for a walk may not feel natural to everyone, so this is a great question to take to Sophia, your AI leadership coach in My Path. Sophia can provide different types of reflective practices and additional prompts based on what works best for you.
Feedback: One Conversation That Strengthens Your Leadership
To close out your week of trying out some new actionable habits to exercise your values, we encourage you to get feedback on how things have worked or changed for you from an outside perspective. This kind of feedback helps to expose insights you may not have thought of.
If You Have a Coworker You Trust to Give You Feedback
If you have a trusted colleague you already turn to for feedback, this is a great conversation to have with them! One key to maximizing this kind of help is to keep the request for feedback manageable for your colleague, so here are some questions to get you started. We recommend you pick one to use in conversation with your trusted colleague this week:
- The “specific behavior” approach: I’m working on building X habit. Have you noticed any differences when we’ve been in the same meetings this week? This feels less intense than sharing your whole development plan.
- The “impact” inquiry: When I did X, how did that land with you? This focuses on their experience rather than on your development goals.
You can also set up a regular check-in with this colleague to talk about your leadership. This works best if your colleague is also working on developing their own leadership, and enables you to serve as supports for one another.
If You’re Not Sure Who to Ask
If you’re not sure who to get feedback from, or if you’re uncomfortable asking directly for feedback, there are still ways to assess what’s working and what’s not. Following are some suggestions. And again—pick just one thing to try this week. If it doesn’t help, you can try something new next week! And if it does help, keep it up!
- Observe reactions in real time: Pay attention to body language, engagement levels, and energy shifts when you practice new behaviors. People’s responses may tell you what words don’t.
- Use general team feedback mechanisms: Suggest team retrospectives or “how are we working together?” conversations that naturally surface feedback about everyone’s contributions.
- Ask broadly about the team dynamics: Ask such questions as, “How do you think our team meetings have been going lately?” or “What’s working well in how we collaborate?” This can reveal how your changes are affecting the group.
- Request feedback on specific projects or decisions: Focus on outcomes rather than behaviors: “How did that project feel to work on?” can reveal your leadership impact.
Take a minute to think about which approach feels more natural to you, and try to capture one piece of feedback today.