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High Performers Aren’t Born, They’re Built: One Habit at a Time
- Business Development, Leadership, Personal Growth
- Lifepuzzle
Summary:
High performance in leadership is not a genetic gift; it is built through deliberate practice. Every executive knows that talent will only take a leader so far, but it is the discipline of habits that shapes influence, resilience, and trust. The leaders who consistently perform at the highest levels are not relying on chance, they are following a set of behaviours refined over time and grounded in both psychology and business research.
In this article, we explore the practical, repeatable habits that separate capable managers from exceptional leaders. These insights are designed for executives, founders, and HR leaders who want to sharpen their edge and build teams that thrive under pressure.
You’ll find:
• Leadership habits that protect focus and energy
• Emotional intelligence practices that influence performance
• Communication frameworks that build trust
• Health strategies that sustain resilience
These are high performance habits that scale far beyond generic advice. They are the routines that matter most in boardrooms, high-growth organisations, and industries where the cost of poor leadership is measured in missed opportunities and stalled momentum.
The Foundation of Leadership: Setting Boundaries
For leaders, boundaries are a performance tool rather than a restriction. Without them, focus fragments and energy drains into work that doesn’t move the organisation forward. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that leaders who define limits outperform those who operate reactively.
High performers use boundaries to:
• Protect their calendars from low-value meetings
• Clarify what they will and will not take on
• Model respect for their own time so others follow suit
Boundaries should be communicated firmly and consistently. When done well, they create space for strategic decision-making and send a clear message to teams about priorities.
Emotional Intelligence: The Core of High Performance
Emotional intelligence underpins trust, influence, and decision-making. It is not about being agreeable, it is about understanding how emotions shape behaviour. According to McKinsey research, leaders with high EQ drive stronger team performance and higher retention.
Leaders can develop EQ by practising:
• Structured reflection to identify emotional triggers
• Regulating responses under pressure
• Reading subtle cues in team interactions
• Demonstrating empathy while holding accountability
When leaders strengthen their EQ, they create environments where people feel respected and understood, which directly improves collaboration and outcomes.
The Role of Health in Sustaining High Performance
Health is the fuel for sustained leadership. Senior leaders already know the basics, so the focus must be on advanced strategies that ensure energy is available when decisions matter most. Deloitte’s Human Sustainability report highlights that organisations thrive when leaders role-model sustainable health practices.
Effective health routines for leaders include:
• Scheduling time for critical thought and research to innovate strategy
• A deeper understanding of how nutrition plays a crucial role in development
• Taking meetings outdoors or offsite to reset and refresh conversations
• Inviting health-centric professionals into the workplace to educate
Resilient health practices enable leaders to handle pressure without sacrificing clarity or influence but they also show a deeper level of understanding into the principle fact that how you do one thing, is how you do everything; do it with intention.
Communication: The Bridge to Effective Leadership
Clear communication is not just about clarity, it is about influence. Executives who consistently align their message with organisational strategy accelerate results. Communication builds trust and signals credibility when delivered with precision.
Advanced communication habits include:
- Practising advanced techniques that deepen conversations and uncover what is not being said
- Using storytelling to connect strategy with day-to-day operations
- Delivering feedback as a growth tool rather than a judgement
- Prioritising emotional intelligence to build psychological safety and transparency
When communication becomes an intentional discipline, leaders create cultures of accountability and momentum.
At Life Puzzle, our Leadership and Influence Program is designed to help leaders embed these habits at a higher level. The program equips executives and emerging leaders with frameworks for influence, advanced communication strategies, and the ability to create lasting impact across their teams. By strengthening the link between clarity and influence, participants learn how to lead with confidence, align people to purpose, and sustain high performance in complex environments.
Find out more about how the Leadership and Influence Program can help you shape stronger leaders and build influence across your organisation.
Inclusion and Collaboration: Hallmarks of Exceptional Leadership
Inclusion is a multiplier of performance. Diverse teams, when led well, outperform homogeneous ones in both creativity and profitability. The World Economic Forum notes that inclusive leadership drives innovation at scale.
Practical ways leaders embed inclusion include:
• Actively seeking out diverse perspectives when making decisions
• Encouraging constructive debate that challenges assumptions and focuses on strategy
• Building psychological safety to ensure a culture of responsiblity
• Creating structures that ensure equal access to opportunities
Collaboration is not just a value, it is a leadership strategy that unlocks the full capacity of teams.
FAQs
Habits create predictability and structure. They free leaders to focus on strategy by removing repeated decision fatigue.
Emotional intelligence builds trust and resilience. It enables leaders to manage conflict, influence stakeholders, and retain top talent.
Health ensures leaders sustain performance over decades, not just quarters. Energy is the resource that underpins all decision-making.
Communication is the lever that aligns people to purpose. It accelerates execution by making direction unambiguous.
Inclusion enhances creativity and ensures decisions are more robust by incorporating diverse insights. It is a leadership competency that future-proofs teams.
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