The top habits of the best leaders from the most complete study ever conducted
Bottom Line: We all want to work for companies that value our work, provide us with the tools to succeed and generally set us up for success. In other words, we'd all like to work for companies led by what Harvard's Business Review identified as the top habits of the best CEO's. Harvard studied 12 years' worth of behavior and success to identify these five habits of the best of the best. These are them:
* Personal interaction over digital communication (this is ironic given that many of the top execs are in technology)
* Clear objectives/goals
* They delegate effectively and trust those around them to do the work
* Meetings are short and to the point
* Balancing work/life while working daily
I'll pick up on that last one... Of the top executives – they all generally work seven days a week and on vacation. The bottom line is that being a top executive is literally a job that never stops. Here's the average workday of the best execs:
- Weekdays: 10 hours
- Weekend days: 4 hours
- Vacation days: 2 hours
But importantly they make use of their personal time effectively. The average top exec works in an average of 45 minutes of exercise per day and 7 hours of sleep. What's interesting is that the average top exec works more than average but also sleeps and exercises a bit more than average which is likely what enables them to be as effective as they are while being faced with work and challenges daily. There's likely a lot that we can all glean from this research. How do you compare?