EP193 S06 The Micro-Habits of Exceptional Leaders
What if those heroic, larger-than-life figures we see in movies have almost nothing to do with what makes a leader great?
We’re sold this idea that leadership is all about grand gestures, pivotal moments, or that one brilliant decision that saves the company. But what if the most powerful leadership tool wasn’t a single, heroic act at all, but a quiet, daily habit so small you’d barely even notice it?
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Many of us have this picture in our heads of the “Hero Leader”, the lone genius who swoops in to save the day, or the charismatic visionary who changes the world with one big idea. We see them on screen, we read about them, and pretty soon, we start to believe this dangerous myth.
This myth is damaging because it makes real leadership feel completely out of reach for most of us. It whispers that leadership is for a special few, people born with something the rest of us just don’t have. This way of thinking creates dependency, where teams just wait for the hero to solve all their problems. It kills growth, restrains innovation, and disempowers everyone.
When a leader feels they have to fix everything alone, nobody on the team gets a chance to step up and grow. It’s a recipe for burnout, stress, and a culture where no one feels safe enough to take a risk. It’s a lie that holds incredible people back, making them feel like they aren’t cut out to lead simply because they’re not wearing a cape. The truth is, leadership isn’t about being a hero. It’s about being consistent.
The Astonishing Power of 1%
The secret of the world’s most effective leaders isn’t some massive, one-time action. It’s in something much smaller, something anyone can do: the power of tiny, daily improvements. They master the 1 percent improvement routine.
Think of it like compound interest. We usually hear about it with money—how a small sum, with consistent interest, grows into a fortune. Leadership habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. If you get just 1% better at something every day, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the end of the year. But it works both ways. A 1% decline each day will shrink your skills down to almost nothing. What starts as a small, nearly unnoticeable choice snowballs into something massive.
So, how do you actually do this? How do you become a 1% daily better leader? It starts with small, intentional actions that, when repeated, create huge shifts in your leadership and your team’s performance.
Run Experiments in Safe Spaces
First, treat your leadership like a laboratory. Great leaders don’t wait for a huge crisis to take action. They’re constantly practicing and implementing improvements in low-risk situations. Think about a team meeting—that’s a perfect, safe space to test a new way of facilitating a discussion or giving feedback. If the action has a good result, keep it; if not, learn from it and move to the next idea.
To learn, you have to feel safe. You wouldn’t learn to swim by jumping into the ocean during a storm, right? You start in the safe swimming pool. Leadership is the exact same. Before you try something new, ask yourself, “Is this a space where it’s okay if it doesn’t work and I can learn from it?” Even more importantly, ask, “Am I creating that same safety for my team?” When you follow this model—trying small things, learning, and adjusting—you give everyone permission to grow. Remember, development isn’t about being perfect; it’s about practice.
Measure What Truly Matters
You’ve probably heard the saying, “What gets measured gets managed.” But 1% leaders add a little warning to that: “…so be really careful what you measure.” It’s easy to track vanity metrics—things like the number of emails sent, tasks checked off, or hours clocked. But those numbers often drive the wrong behavior, making people focus on being busy instead of making an impact.
A 1% everyday better leader measures what actually leads to better results: things like team engagement, psychological safety, and real progress toward goals. For example, instead of counting how many messages fly back and forth in the team chat, you could measure how quickly important questions get resolved. Instead of just celebrating that a project is done, you could track what the team learned along the way. Every day, ask yourself this simple question: “Are my metrics driving the right behaviors, or just creating an illusion of progress?”
Conduct a Daily Friction Audit
Great leaders are focused on removing friction. What’s friction? It’s anything, no matter how tiny, that makes it harder for your team to do their best work. It could be confusing software, a poorly run meeting, or a bureaucratic process with too many sign-offs. These little annoyances are energy vampires that kill momentum. Ask questions like, “If you had the chance to get rid of one frustrating task, what would it be?” This habit of finding and removing little roadblocks is a form of inclusion. When you smooth the path for your team, you create an environment where everyone can move faster and focus on work that really matters. Your job isn’t just to point the way; it’s to clear the path.
Model Growth Through Small Acts of Courage
Leadership isn’t just about guiding others; it’s about growing yourself first. And guess what? Your team is always watching. When you show the courage to get feedback, to admit you don’t have all the answers, or to learn a new skill out in the open, you set a powerful example. This isn’t about some grand, heroic display of vulnerability; it’s about the small, daily acts of courage.
It could be as simple as saying, “You know what, I was wrong about that. Thanks for catching it,” in a team meeting. When you celebrate your own small steps of progress—not just perfection—you build a culture where learning is valued more than flawlessness.
Reject the Formula and Find Your Path
The final habit is really a mindset: there is no one-size-fits-all map to becoming a great leader. The ideas we’ve talked about aren’t a rigid formula. They’re tools you need to adapt to your unique style, your team’s needs, and your company’s culture. Leadership isn’t some destination you finally arrive at; it’s a constant process of learning and adapting. It’s about becoming more of who you are through the simple discipline of daily improvement.
So, that myth of the great leader? It’s just that—a myth. It makes for a good movie, but it’s a terrible way to manage teams. Real, lasting impact doesn’t come from a single moment of brilliance. It comes from the relentless accumulation of small, positive actions.
That’s it for today! Don’t forget to hit like and share your 1% commitment in the comments below. Let’s build a community of leaders who are focused on what really matters—the small, daily improvements that lead to massive results. Thanks for all your ratings on Amazon and Goodreads about the books Life Quality Projects and Principles of Quality. Don’t forget that The Quality Mindset will be released soon, and until next week, hit like to get notified of the next episode!