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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Leader Habit summary
Martin Lanik
Master the Skills You Need to Lead in Just Minutes a Day
19 mins
Brief summary
The Leader Habit by Martin Lanik is a practical guide to developing leadership skills. It offers a unique approach to leadership development based on four simple habits that, when practiced daily, can transform a person into a successful leader.
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The Leader Habit
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Key idea 1 of 6
Leadership skills are best understood as a series of learned habits.
It makes little difference what field you work in – leadership skills matter. And we’re not just talking about company management here; these skills even make a difference when you’re running a household.
So, how do you actually become a better leader?
Leadership theorists used to argue that great leaders were genetically gifted, predisposed to behave as leaders. However, studies have disproved that view. We now know that 70 percent of the qualities associated with great leadership are learned behaviors. In response to this discovery, since 1996 there has been a massive boom in leadership development literature.
Yet, this has hardly led to a new generation of gifted leaders.
Worse, evidence suggests that there is a negative correlation between the rise in prominence of the field, and the confidence that Americans have in their leaders.
If books aren’t working, what’s the best way to learn about leadership? Rather than seeing leadership as learnable knowledge, it would help to think of it as a set of skills. A skill can be learned through exercises, training your automatic behavior so that a habit is developed.
Let’s look at the example of Laura. She was an emergency room nurse who was repeatedly passed over for management roles. Laura hadn’t noticed that her colleagues saw her as abrupt, emotionally erratic and argumentative. In short, she was hardly leadership material.
To polish her CV and ensure she got the promotion she desired, Laura decided to take part in the author’s leadership development program. She learned to practice an important exercise: asking colleagues open-ended questions that ideally hinged on “What” or “How.” To remind herself to do this, she made a note on her hand. She soon found that her colleagues were a lot more responsive if she asked for their opinions. Using this technique, her relationships began to improve and her confidence grew.
You too could try adapting your behavior in this manner, and developing this simple habit.
Soon enough, Laura didn’t need written reminders. She not only succeeded in getting the management position she aspired to, but her relationships with friends and family members improved. All it took was training in the right skills.
But how do you do this?
The following blinks will introduce you the author’s Leader Habit Formula. The idea is that the habits essential for leadership can be practiced with simple five-minute training exercises.
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Key ideas in The Leader Habit
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What is The Leader Habit about?
The Leader Habit (2018) details an approach to leadership development that favors practice and habit learning over rote learning of knowledge. By looking at the ways habits are developed, and by breaking down the skills necessary for successful leadership into microbehaviors, these blinks offer a structure for becoming a better leader through short training exercises.
Best quote from The Leader Habit
It takes an average of 66 days to form a new fully automatic microbehavior.
—Martin Lanik
Who should read The Leader Habit?
- Wallflowers looking to improve their leadership skills
- Business school students and entrepreneurs
- Strivers who’ve failed to keep a New Year’s resolution
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