Leaders on Leadership: Habits Dropped, Habits Adopted
Leadership evolves through deliberate shifts, dropping outdated habits for empowering ones amid 2025’s fast-paced demands.
This HR Spotlight article compiles insights from business leaders and HR professionals on one practice abandoned and one adopted, with direct outcomes.
Experts share ditching micromanagement for strategic check-ins, ego for empathy, and “always-on” for boundaries, yielding 60% faster development, 18% pay hikes, and doubled engagement.
By modeling calm, prioritizing sleep, and trusting teams, they foster innovation and retention.
These changes prove small adjustments amplify impact, turning personal growth into organizational strength in hybrid, AI-driven workplaces.
Read on!
Luca Dal Zotto
Founder, Convert Bank Statement
As the entrepreneur of Convert Bank Statement, I’ve experienced tremendous leadership development that directly affected my company’s growth curve and employee productivity.
Abandoned Practice: Micromanaging all development decisions. I used to review all code commits and sign off on minor feature tweaks, believing this ensured quality. This did slow things down and discouraged my talented developers.
Habit Developed: Weekly strategic check-ins with defined outcome expectations. Instead of micromanaging tasks daily, I established formal weekly check-ins regarding project milestones, problems, and resource requirements.
I shifted from “how are you doing this?” to “what do you need to be successful?”
Direct Results: Development rate was boosted by 60% over three months. Team satisfaction ratings increased from 6.2 to 8.7 out of 10.
My developers began coming to me with suggestions I never would have considered, leading to two patent-pending features.
Most importantly, this freed up 15 hours a week for me to focus on strategic partnerships and business development, leading to 40% revenue growth over six months.
Ditch Micromanaging, Unleash 60% Speed
Dan Salganik
Managing Partner, VisualFizz
In recent years, I consciously dropped the habit of immediately saying “yes” to every request and opportunity that came my way.
I realized this scattered my focus and often led to my team feeling overwhelmed by a constant stream of new priorities.
Instead, I intentionally adopted the practice of pausing and evaluating requests against our core objectives, asking “Does this align with our most important goals right now?”
This shift has had a direct and positive outcome: our team’s work is now more focused and impactful.
We’re making more significant progress on key projects, and there’s a greater sense of shared purpose and less burnout.
It has empowered us to dedicate our best energy to what truly matters.
Say No to Chaos, Yes to Focus
David Naylor
President & CEO, Rayburn Electric Cooperative
One leadership habit I dropped was being the first to speak. Earlier in my career, I believed decisive input from the top was essential.
But I’ve learned that when a CEO fills the space, it limits what others feel empowered to contribute. Today, I speak last—if at all. I’ve found that better ideas surface when people aren’t trying to guess what the boss wants to hear.
What I adopted instead was presence, both physical and relational.
I want our team to know that leadership isn’t detached, and that no one is too senior to listen, learn, or lend a hand.
That approach paid off during Winter Storm Uri, when rapid trust across teams helped us act decisively and protect the communities we serve.
As I say in my book Status Quo Is Not Company Policy, leadership isn’t posture. It’s proximity.
And showing up, even when it’s uncomfortable, has reshaped how I lead and how others lead alongside me.
Speak Last, Unlock Team Brilliance
Alexis Braly James
Founder & Principal Consultant, Construct the Present
As a founder and former educator, I’ve learned that leadership is as much about what you stop doing as what you start.
Habit I dropped: I stopped checking email first thing in the morning. It was pulling me into reaction mode and draining my focus before I had a chance to set an intention. Letting that go has allowed me to start my days with clarity, purpose, and presence.
Habit I adopted: I now take quarterly solo retreats and intentionally block out time for strategic thinking each week. These moments help me stay grounded in our long-term vision, rather than just responding to what’s urgent.
The outcomes:
1. I make decisions that are more aligned with my values and long-term goals.
2. My team has clearer direction and less confusion about priorities.
3. Our client engagements are more intentional, rooted in strategy, not urgency.
4.I experience less stress and more capacity to hold space for deep, meaningful work.
By giving myself space to think, I’ve become a more present leader, a better strategist, and a stronger advocate for the kind of culture we’re helping others build.
Ditch Email Mornings, Ignite Clarity
Pooja A. Patel
Founder & Elder Care Consultant, Pooja Patel OT
In 2023, I made a pivotal shift: I stopped micromanaging and started consciously trusting the people I hire, employees and external partners alike.
Instead of hovering over every task, I now set clear goals, supply resources, and then step back.
The time I once spent on status checks is now invested in business-development conversations, creative planning, and forging new partnerships.
Team members feel genuine ownership, volunteer innovative ideas, and move projects forward without waiting for my sign-off.
Personally, I’m lighter and far more strategic, and the organization enjoys a steadier pipeline of fresh initiatives and quicker decision-making.
Stop Hovering, Spark Innovation Surge
Lori Bruhns
Leadership & Performance Development Coach, Lori Bruhns
As an executive coach and leadership developer I believe a habit to adopt is Get To Know Your People. What does this exactly mean?
An effective and efficient leader is a servant leader. They know that their role as leaders is to develop those they lead.
When a leader knows their people they are able to lead them with ease.
Knowing your people is being aware of who they are both at work and outside of work.
Don’t get me wrong… it’s not imperative to be best friends with those you lead and it is imperative to know them well enough that when something looks off with them you are in tune with it and cultivate a relationship that affords you the opportunity to be curious with them enough to support them where they are at.
What habit to drop… one’s Ego. When leaders drop their ego they lead with intention and purpose vs self-interest.
Ego-lead leadership has potential to create toxic work environments, low morale, and high turn-over within an organization.
Leaders who drop their ego are self-reflective, empathetic, lead with humility and focus on the overall team and organizational success.
Drop Ego, Ignite Servant Leadership
A leadership habit I consciously dropped was relying on intuition alone during high-stakes decisions.
In fast-moving environments, what feels instinctive can be a residue of past bias or urgency.
I replaced that habit with a more biologically grounded one: deliberate pause.
Even a brief pause lowers cortisol, increases heart rate variability, and improves access to prefrontal thinking.
That one shift—just a few seconds of controlled breath before responding—made me more effective in conflict, more trusted in feedback conversations, and better able to model calm under pressure.
The direct outcome? Higher-quality decisions, more resilient teams, and clearer alignment between intention and impact.
Sometimes the smallest change—like a pause—is the most powerful.
Pause Powerfully, Boost Decision Magic
Latif Hamilton
CEO& Founder, Spirit Hoods
Playing the “always-on, superhero CEO” role was one of the leadership habits that I was happy to leave behind.
I think I used to believe that a great leader was one who was constantly on caffeine and responding to email at midnight. It’s not—spoiler alert: it’s daily password forgetting and burnout calendars.
Rather, I learned about ruthless prioritization and unapologetic boundary-setting.
Sleep is my job description, and I now believe that mental clarity is a superpower (because it is).
The reward? Better creative decision-making, a happy team, and fewer Slack messages composed in a haze at three in the morning.
Leadership, I’ve learned, is doing the right things, with a full battery and perhaps a dance break in between. It’s not doing everything.
Ditch Superhero Mode, Recharge Creativity
Dr. Noah St. John
Founder & CEO, Meet Noah
One leadership habit I dropped was trying to do it all myself, driven by what I call ‘head trash,’ the subconscious belief that says, ‘If I want it done right, I have to do it myself.’
That mindset kept me overworked and my team underutilized.
The habit I adopted instead was empowering others.
By letting go of control and trusting my team, I created space for bigger growth and less burnout.
As I teach my clients: your business can only grow as fast as you let go.
Let Go Control, Skyrocket Growth
The HR Spotlight team thanks these industry leaders for offering their expertise and experience and sharing these insights.
Do you wish to contribute to the next HR Spotlight article? Or is there an insight or idea you’d like to share with readers across the globe?
Write to us at connect@HRSpotlight.com, and our team will help you share your insights.
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