At one or the other point in our lives, we must have spared a thought about how the world leaders at major corporate giants manage their daily affairs, what’s the secret to their success and productivity, how’d their morning routine look like and what are their habits. Also, are their habits different to ours? Or they are just the same but at a higher social position?
Here are the Top 6 common habits that majority of the Entrepreneurs, CEOs, Innovators, Leaders and Successful people share among themselves. If you can manage to follow them too, you’ll be on a better path of enlightenment.
1.) Getting Up Early
Getting up early in the morning is a relatively global phenomenon among successful CEOs. As they say, ‘Catch The Dawn’. New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark wakes up at 3:30 a.m. Virgin America chief executive David Cush starts the day at 4:15 a.m. Robert Iger, CEO of Disney, says he wakes up at 4:30 a.m., and Dan Akerson, former Chief Executive Officer of General Motors, says it is not uncommon to fall asleep at 4pm or 5am. The list goes on, but the content remains the same. If you want to get on the list and join these big business players, you can’t do it by sitting on the couch.
If you don’t even know what 4 in the morning looks like, you miss the great opportunity to add more productivity to your day. Get up early and start the work day well. This extra time will make it easier for you to incorporate all of these CEO practices.
2.) Regular Exercise
Regular exercise is as common among successful CEOs as waking up early in the morning. In fact, this is one of the first of many of these artists to put on a date. Andrea Jung, the former CEO of Avon Products, got up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym before work. Unilever chief executive Paul Polman gets up at 6 a.m. so he has time to run to the press in his office. He says he uses his first exercise period to think about the next workday.
Haim Saban, chief executive of Saban Capital, works an hour, and then does a 75-minute workout before he hears that he has really started the day. Yormark, who has the right to be the chief executive of the NBA, works every morning as well. If you feel that your day does not start as you would like, try putting a jog or some other form of exercise into your routine before going to the office.
3.) Daily Meditations
Meditation is a very popular strategy for clearing the mind and concentration. Oprah Winfrey is so dedicated to the concept of transcendental meditation (TM) that she has TM teachers who teach everyone in her company who wants to learn the art of meditation. You measure at least 20 minutes of daily meditation and aim for two 20-minute sessions.
In an article on his website, Winfrey cites many benefits of this practice, stating that “the results have been remarkable. Better sleep. Improved relationships with partners, children, and co-workers. Some people who once had migraines no longer have them. Great productivity and art all around. ”
Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp, is also involved. He wrote on Twitter: “Trying to learn to meditate too much. Everyone is praising, not that it is so easy to get started, but that we have improved everything! ”
4.) Reduce The Meetings
Meetings are a waste of time and resources that some CEO executives see as completely unnecessary. Instead of building more bagels and muffins on the budget for regular meetings, think of alternatives, and see if you can reduce or eliminate these meetings altogether.
Big businessman (and owner of Dallas Mavericks) Mark Cuban puts it very well, saying, “Meetings are a waste of time unless you close the deal. There are so many ways to communicate in real time or around that any meeting you attend should have time and set results before you agree to attend. ”
If you are wondering how you can balance all of this exercise and meditation into your day, ending most of your meetings can provide a solution. Try limiting your contact to email or other ways instead, and see how much time you can spare in your day.
5.) Organise The Mess/Details
Busy top officials have a lot to say in their books, and order is the key to getting things done. Danny Meyer, chief executive of Union Square Hospitality Group, has an invitation program that helps him keep up with all his tasks without being overwhelmed by too many distractions throughout the day. Her great assistant sends her a daily memo with a schedule for the next day, questions that appear during the day, FYIs, and long-term reminders.
Regarding the postponed program, he says, “We started memos only last year, and I don’t know how we succeeded without them. I care about the details. This way, I don’t worry about missing anything. ”You can copy this strategy by setting aside half a day to deal with the smallest detail. Dealing with them all at once keeps them from slowing down all day.
6.) Develop Creativity
In addition to all the other habits on this list, developing your intellect is probably the most important factor. In any organization, it takes great inspiration and skill not only to succeed but also to maintain that success.
And perhaps no one has instilled this spirit of art more prominently than Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His approach to creative leadership focuses on the importance of designing and reviving “everyday products,” as he calls them. His thoughts on art, of course, were not trivial.
He said famously, “Art is just connecting things. When you ask talented people how they did something, they feel less guilty because they didn’t really do it; they just said something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. ”
Yet he incorporated his concept of creative values into everyone who worked under him, and eventually grew to become the edge of Apple’s leading competition. If you still need more assurance, check out this Fast Company survey where 60% of respondents said that intelligence will be the most important leadership quality in the next five years.
Whether you are embracing one new strategy or trying it all out, these are proven practices that serve as a common thread in the middle and not just one, but many CEOs have seen great success.
