Evaluating and Elevating Your Habits
You know I love quotes.
Sometimes they are little bursts of inspiration or motivation, and sometimes they are gentle reminders to take action to change.
When I first saw this quote by Therese Fowler:
“Some rules are nothing but old habits that people are afraid to change”
two different paths came to mind – one was external and the other was internal.
Let’s take the external one first.
For your business to grow, systems and guidelines are essential. They create the opportunity to streamline work, increase productivity, set clear expectations, and map processes so that everyone involved is on the same sheet of music. These can easily become habits for the business or organization. Habits because it’s what is known and expected, even if they don’t make sense anymore.
What was helpful at one time may be outdated now, but unless it’s revisited and reexamined, it will continue to do what it’s always done.
To make sure your business habits are serving your organization, periodically review the rules, documents, policies, and procedures that keep your business moving and make sure they are still appropriate. Ask the following questions in each case:
- Are these the right tools and systems to move business forward?
- If they are, do they need to be refreshed and tweaked?
- If they aren’t, what’s the best way to eliminate them?
From the internal perspective, what habits do you do? How are they serving you?
The habits that you keep help you to grow or stay stagnate, too. Remember that as the leader, your bar of excellence is what sets the standard of expectations for your business and organization.
How do you know that one small change might make the biggest difference in the success you see and feel as you lead your team, organization or business?
The real key in all of this is to take courageous action and make the necessary changes. So what's one habit you're open to changing?
Hey!
