9 Leadership Habits to Eliminate

Vala Afshar is the chief evangelist of Salesforce and the curator of a wonderful Twitter account, @ValaAfshar, that provides prolific insight on leadership and technology. He’s also the author of “The Pursuit of Social Business Experience” and co-hosts a weekly show diving into the latest digital business and innovation trends. 

In one of his tweets, Afshar lists nine qualities we’d be wise to eliminate. It’s a seemingly simple list of elements we should abandon to improve our standing in the workplace as well as our relationships with loved ones and friends. Shedding these won’t necessarily ensure our career reaches new heights, but it might make our lives slightly better moving forward. Here are the nine:

1. A zero-sum mindset

2. A sense of entitlement

3. Being motivated by compliments

4. Relationship with pure takers

5. Name dropping to impress

6. Telling people how busy you are

7. Quitting for no logical reason

8. Pretending you know

9. Keeping grudges

Let’s take a moment to candidly grade ourselves on each. Then, let’s re-rank the list in the personal order of relevance.

As we begin each day, let’s remind ourselves to eliminate, or at the very least reduce, the ones at the top of our list and then slowly work to remove each mentally. Before long, they can be eradicated, and we can begin to feel empowered with a newfound sense of confidence.   

Becoming a better leader isn’t always about accumulating values and habits. In fact, it can often be about eliminating them. These nine are a good place to start.