Success Behaviors are what turns ordinary teams into high-performing teams.

You don’t need New Year’s Resolutions. Your team doesn’t need a New Year’s rah-rah-rah.

What you need is to stop tolerating habits that won’t get you where you want to go.

The highest-performing teams I work with (those who double or triple revenue, or multiply company value) aren’t doing anything magical.

They just identify the small set of behaviors that drive their results. And they execute them relentlessly.

Success in leadership and business growth is simple. Far simpler than most want to believe. The trick is that simple isn’t always easy. It’s rarely complicated—just boring, counterintuitive, or uncomfortable.

It’s a lot like fitness: If you want to lose weight – move more and eat less. The $300 billion dollar weight loss industry benefits from making this more complicated than it is.

But, as many people know, simple doesn’t mean easy. The difficulty is rarely in the mechanics of weight loss. It’s the social-psychology of it.

It’s the same with building a well-running business.

Success Behaviors

Inflection points happen when leadership teams regularly begin practicing what I call, “Success Behaviors.” These are a few, usually one to three specific behaviors. When everyone on the team practices them, success is a natural result.

They are analogous to, “Don’t keep junk food in the house.” Or “take a 30 min walk at lunch.” Or, “Drink a glass of water before eating a meal.”

Nothing fancy, no extra expense, but consistency makes a lasting difference over time. None of the weight loss treatments—not even Ozempic—can replace consistent behavior change. The weight comes back if you don’t change your behaviors… or stay on the drug forever.

Typical business success behaviors look similar:

• Hold weekly team check-ins.
• Always identify who is responsible for action points and when they are due.
• Indicate when you need a response in the top line of all e-mails.

Pretty boring really. So simple, their power is easy to overlook. But practicing them will change the trajectory of your business.

When complicated looks better

My strategy clients will all go through the exercise of identifying their Success Behaviors.

It usually just takes a few minutes. Everyone knows the answer to the question of, “If we all just did (X) around here – things would work.” It’s never a mystery.

In every strategy session, this seems obvious. But on a daily basis, clients face a fork in the road. Practice the Success Behavior and get new results – or do the old behaviors and get the same results.

It’s easier and more fun to buy new equipment, pursue a new sales strategy, redo the organizational chart or create a new spreadsheet. Or, the ‘funnest’ leadership activity: “Putting out fires.”

And Success Behaviors are ignored and forgotten.

However, the clients who really gain traction and take off are the ones who put their success behaviors into practice. The results are not always immediate but they aren’t slow either. They typically include:

• A surprising sense of team alignment and cohesion
• Less stress
• Better relationships with clients or customers
• Increased bandwidth / fewer hours needed
• A stronger bottom line

Proof is in the pudding

Here is the difference in practical terms:

Growth: Businesses who do engage in and practice their Success Behaviors will typically double or triple their revenues within 3–5 years. Along the way, work feels easier. Management load is reduced.
I see this regularly with 8- and 9-figure clients.

Value: Businesses preparing for an exit will see similar results with their valuations. Some clients go far beyond tripling their value and increasing their ability to attract buyers.

Most owners don’t know this but only 20–30% of businesses will ever even sell. So, to take a company, multiply its value and attract buyers is a significant result. Following success behaviors is what drives this.

You don’t need New Year’s Resolutions. You need to identify and commit to Success Behaviors.

So, where to start?

What is that common problem on your team that seems to create unnecessary friction? Or it seems to bleed off energy and effort?

Common problems include:

• Showing up late to meetings.
• Not being prepared for meetings.
• Not having a purpose or agenda for each meeting.
• Not identifying & capturing action items.
• Not identifying who is responsible for each action item and by when.
• Not responding to e-mail (or other company communication)
• Burying key questions or directions in too much information.
• Arguing before listening.
• Jumping to (and holding onto) conclusions.

Etc.

You know what they are for your team. If you don’t, your team certainly does.

Ask them. Pick at least one. No more than three.

They are often related issues – like not identifying action items, not assigning them, and not holding scheduled check-ins.

Commit to practicing them. Build a system around it – so that they happen even when you forget or don’t feel like it.

Success is the result of the right, consistent behaviors over time.

Don’t impose these on your team. Identify them with your team. Commit to practicing them. Give each other permission to hold each other accountable for them.

Watch the growth and change you are looking for ‘miraculously’ happen.

Take good care,
Christian