CPA Practice Advisor - 28

THE LEADERSHIP ADVISOR
How to Adapt Our Habits to Create
Stronger Connections at Work
IN THIS AGE of technology disruption, we can feel alone, sometimes not knowing where
our anchor is - what will stay the same, what will change, and what we can depend on,
and how we will get there together. As leaders, we focus on change management in our
organizations and what the future of our work will look like, however; there isn't always

AMY VETTER, CPA.CITP, CGMA

Mindful Technologist &
Keynote Speaker
@AmyVetterCPA

an equal amount of focus on creating stronger human connection as we go through the
process and ensuring everyone feels they are not alone.
What can get in the way of progress is when our individual patterns
of behavior prevent the business from
embracing the opportunities ahead. In
order to create change, breaking the
habits that are holding us back can
come down to understanding the
internal stories that drive each of us
and the decisions we make because
of them. Everyone has habits. It is
a fact of human existence that we
are, as the old saying goes, creatures
of habit. All too often, we think of
these acts only in terms of the "bad
habits" our parents told us to avoid,
like biting our fingernails or putting
our elbows on the table. However,
many of our habits are decidedly a
good thing. If you had to consciously
make millions of decisions in a day,
life would become overwhelming in
a hurry. Habits are ways for us to act
on instinct and streamline our days
to be more efficient.
Think of the way you get up in the
morning. Odds are you turn off your
alarm, turn on the shower, brew a cup
of coffee, and so on without ever having to think about it. These habits are
hardwired into our brains, allowing
us to perform countless tasks during
a day. A habit only causes a problem
when you don't like the outcome of
the behavior associated with it. In
a professional context, you may be
snappy or curt to colleagues out of
habit, later regretting your behavior
and having to apologize or resisting
change, rather than stepping back and
learning about the opportunity and

28

JUNE 2019 ■

how you can reskill to move forward.
You don't want to have to experience these negative consequences
over and over again before doing
something about the habits keeping
you from being your best self. It's
hard work to look at yourself, and
dedicate time to the practice of doing
things better or differently. The payoff,
though, is more than worth the effort.
Before you begin to fix your habits,
you need to understand what a habit
is and how it works.

WHAT IS A HABIT?
Merriam-Webster defines "habit" as
follows:
■ A settled tendency or usual manner
of behavior
■ An acquired mode of behavior that
has become nearly or completely
involuntary
■ An addiction
■ A behavior pattern acquired by
f requent repet it ion or phy siologic exposure that shows itself in
regularity or increased facility of
performance
What all of these definitions have
in common is that they describe the
somewhat involuntary nature of our
habitual behaviors. That's why they
can be so hard to change. We can pinpoint the behavior we want to correct
and still struggle to do so. Without
understanding the why underlying a
behavior, it becomes very difficult to
stop it.
Very few human behaviors are
innate or unprompted. "That's just

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the way I am" is a tired excuse for
acting in a way that harms others
or hampers your own performance.
It may be challenging to change the
"way" you are, but you can do it with
self-reflection and daily practice.

HOW TO REPLACE A BAD
HABIT
In his best-selling book The Power of
Habit, Charles Duhigg describes a "habit
loop" consisting of three parts: cue,
routine, and reward. "First, there is a
cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go
into automatic mode and which habit
to use," Duhigg writes. "Then there is
the routine, which can be physical or
mental or emotional. Finally, there is a
reward, which helps your brain figure
out if this particular loop is worth
remembering for the future."
What this means is that identifying the habit or routine itself is not
enough to correct it. Additionally, you
need to understand the cues, both
external and internal, that prompt
the habit in the first place. If you
notice that every time the topic of a
new technology change comes up or
learning a new way of doing things
is creating anxiety for you, instead
of responding or feeling negative, try
to pause for a moment, maybe step
away and take a walk or close your
eyes and take a few deep breaths.
Odds are it may start changing your
perspective from your natural habit
to resist. We may find that it is hard
to do this initially, but when we keep
ourselves accountable and practicing

the habit we want, versus the ones we
don't want, we begin to display these
behaviors more naturally.
Understand the cues that lead to
you wanting to avoid different areas
of change management or that create
conflict between you and other team
members. Is it the stress of dealing
with a hard conversation? Is it the possibility of ruffling a peer's feathers?
Whatever the case, you have to find
a way to take that cue and use it to
spur you toward better action, we can
create a different expeirence when we
begin with ourselves.

THE IMPORTANCE OF
HABIT CORRECTION
Unlocking our potential, both in a
professional and personal context, is
all about performing at our highest
capable level as often as possible. Many
people end up making a few habitual
errors that hold them back in spite of
being A-players the vast majority of
the time. If you suffer from setbacks
that you know you can avoid, ingrained
habits could be to blame. They aren't
going to fix themselves overnight,
but understanding why they happen
and working to correct them can be
one of the best steps toward selfimprovement you ever take.
As accounting professionals, we
are sticklers for getting the numbers
right. Apply that same rigor to your
own patterns of behavior and the sky's
the limit for what you can achieve. ■
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