30 CEOs Reveal the Daily Habits Responsible for Their Success

Getting to the top involves doing the right things, day after day.

By Christina DesMarais

IMAGE: Getty Images

Look at any CEO running a profitable company and you’ll find someone who has figured a few things out. One trait many of these leaders have in common: consistency. Check out these quotes from 30 successful CEOs regarding the daily habits that help them get ahead in business and life.

1. Try one new thing each day.
“Every day, I force myself to do something that is out of my comfort zone. If I hadn’t left my comfort zone back in 2008 to buy that one-way ticket to Buenos Aires, I never would have met my business partner, Aaron Firestein, and BucketFeet would never exist.”

--Raaja Nemani, co-founder and CEO of BucketFeet, a footwear brand that was founded in 2011 after a chance meeting between two travelers. It has grown from one hand-decorated pair of shoes to a brand that has collaborated with over 20,000 artists in more than 100 countries. 

2. Don't do bad days.
“I am a huge fan of Mike Bloomberg and recently saw him speak in a conversation with Alan Patricof at an event. At one point, he turned to Patricof and said something to the effect of, ‘Alan, I'm 73 years old, I don't do doubt and I don't do bad days.’ That really stuck with me. Running a company is really hard, and every day is different, but having a bad day is a choice.” 

-Dan Teran, co-founder and CEO of Managed by Q, an office cleaning, management, and maintenance platform that recently expanded to San Francisco, following New York City and Chicago. 

3. Stay informed about what’s trending.
“[I spend] an hour or two every day keeping up with tech news on Twitter. It's not good to obsess over what other people are doing, but staying informed is certainly important.”

--Michael Bruch, founder and CEO of Willow, a new social platform focused on personality and conversation and aligned with how friendships and partnerships are naturally formed offline. 

4. Accept invitations to as many meetings and events as possible.
“You never know who you will meet or the advice you'll receive.” 

--Liat Zakay, founder and CEO of Donde Fashion, a visual search engine that allows users to shop from more than 6,000 brands and over 1 million products. 

5. Experiment constantly.
“I'm always trying new things and changing how I work. As we've grown from a team of four to a team of 28, my job has changed pretty significantly, and by experimenting with new habits and processes regularly, I am always discovering better ways to run my team that make sense as we grow.” 

--Zach Supalla, co-founder and CEO of Particle, an "Internet of Things" startup that raised more than $1.1 million on Kickstarter and $4.9 million in series A funding. 

6. Fight brain blocks with building blocks.
“There are footballs, golf balls, softballs, chessboards, Legos--everything a curious kid could dream of--covering our office space. Whenever I'm stuck on an idea, I play a quick game of catch or build a Lego house to give my brain a breather. Then it's back to the drawing board. I encourage my team to do the same thing, too. Just like any muscle, your brain needs a recovery session after a tough workout.” 

--Dan Hogan founder and CEO of Medalogix, a health care technology company that provides analytics, workflows, and business intelligence solutions to home health and hospice providers. 

7. Never be afraid to email someone who is “too big.”
“Most people are accommodating and open, as long as you are clear about your needs and what you have to offer.” 

--Kegan Schouwenburg, CEO of SOLS, a 3D-printing technology company. 

8. Make punctuality a priority.
“I strive to be on time for every appointment, every day, without exception. This may seem like a no-brainer in the business world, but you would be surprised how many people still don’t make this a priority. It’s mind-boggling. If a leader is consistently late, it tells others that he or she is unreliable or has no respect for the time of the individuals he or she works with. If he or she is on time, the opposite is true.”

--Andy Bailey, founder of Petra, a business-coaching firm serving 58 businesses in 17 states. 

9. Never ask somebody to do something you wouldn't do yourself.
“No matter how exciting your company or the problems that you are solving are, there will always be day-to-day tasks that are simply boring. Showing that you are willing to roll up your sleeves when the going gets tough will be a positive example for your team. You will be amazed at how this reverberates.”

--Herbert Moore, co-founder and CEO of WiseBanyan, a free financial adviser that minimizes fees and helps people start investing sooner. 

10. Watch YouTube to learn from other great leaders.
“I spend time at the end of every night watching interviews, speeches, and panels of other leaders I admire. Through a bit of YouTube stalking, I've gotten great lessons on culture from Brian Chesky, brand building from Neil Blumenthal, and leadership from Esther Dyson.”

--Lydia Gilbert, co-founder and COO of Dia&Co, an online personal styling service for women sizes 14 to 32. 

11. Exercise and meditate.
“Transcendental meditation for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening is the perfect complement to daily exercise, whether it’s a trip to the gym or a run across the bridge. Since I’ve started this routine, I’ve found my mental clarity and focus have increased enormously.”

--Elliot Tomaeno, founder and CEO of ASTRSK, a PR agency which has grown from five employees to 16 employees over the past year. 

12. Listen to self-improvement books in the car.
“I spend about 45 minutes driving to and from work each day. I can spend that time listening to music or talk radio, but I choose to spend it listening to business books and self-improvement books. Over the last two and a half years, I have listened to nearly 40 audiobooks. These books have given me incredible insight into how to run my business and sharpen my skills. I can listen to a new book in a few days, versus reading a book, which would take me at least a month or two, if not longer, because with two little kids at home, I can never find the time.”

--George Zlatin, co-founder and director of operations at Digital Third Coast, a full-service digital marketing agency that serves clients nationwide. 

13. Start each day with an infectious positive attitude.
“I wake up and start every day with one initial thought: being thankful for the abundance in my life--family, friends, company, and more. Nothing good ever comes easy. Hard work and dedication always pays off. Starting every day with a strong, positive thought is the best way to kickoff each day. I believe that a positive mindset is key to overcoming all obstacles, and I radiate this to my team. Just as negativity is infectious--think: one rotten apple at the bottom of a barrel ultimately will ruin them all--so is positivity. Choose to be positive. Be mindful of your attitude and how it affects others.”

--Gary Miliefsky, CEO of SnoopWall, a counterveillance security company with more than 30 international partners. 

14. Make time for everyone on your team, no matter where they are.
“We are based in the U.S., but also have teams and customers on the ground in Asia, South America, and Europe. Connecting with them every day is incredibly important for staying connected to that part of the business, making sure they know they're valued and getting things done. It's a big time commitment, and sometimes it feels like we have multiple jobs--in the morning in Europe, during the day in the Americas, and at night when the Asia teams are busy. But in the end, it's always worth it to be available and have live discussions when they matter the most.”

--Mike Sands, CEO of Signal, a cross-channel marketing technology company used by thousands of brands and digital agencies around the world. 

15. Make the most of drive time.
“I like to schedule some of my most important calls during my morning drive to the office. While it can be frustrating at times to have a long commute, not to mention often getting stuck in traffic, I find this time very useful for scheduling calls that are uninterrupted. It also allows me to accomplish a lot more for the day when I get into the office, knowing these important conversations have already taken place and I can focus on other matters.”

--David Goldin, CEO and founder of Inc. 5000 company Capify, an alternative financing provider for small businesses which operates in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia. 

16. Make every meeting the second meeting.
“Always have papers before a meeting, read them, and never just do a page-turn. That way, every meeting is really the second meeting.”

--Craig Boundy, CEO of Experian North America, which was named one of the top 100 innovative companies in the world by Forbes. 

17. Find your inner yogi.
“Yoga has helped in so many areas of my life. It forces me to unplug from whatever issue I’m dealing with, spend time as a student, and focus on being present in the moment. I can walk into a studio anywhere in the world and get centered in no time. Early in my career, I would have rolled my eyes reading some executive profess how being on a yoga mat makes them good at business. But I have found a regular practice makes me a better leader, more patient parent, and keeps me sharp mentally and physically.”

--John Swanciger, CEO of Manta, an online small-business community and directory that garners 20 million visitors per month and more than 1,000 new members per day. 

18. Surround yourself with people whose skills complement your own.
“As a leader, it's easy to feel like you need to know or do it all, but you will never be the best at everything. A mentor of mine once told me to focus on my strengths and team up with talented people for the rest. The old saying of ‘it takes a village’ is true in so many parts of life, and embracing it makes you a stronger, healthier person.”

--Matt Lautz, CEO of Corvisa, a cloud communications and contact center solutions provider that was recently named a “2015 Hot Vendor” by Aragon Research. 

19. Walk before bed.
"Every evening after the kids go to sleep, I take a 30-minute walk alone without music. It clears my head, calms me down from the daily stresses of running a startup, and allows me to get proper perspective and clarity about priorities. Most importantly, I sleep like a baby. I learned the importance of this 15 years ago, after reading a biography of Harry Truman, who had to deal with being the president at the end of WWII."

--Charlie Silver, CEO of Algebraix Data, which developed the first universal model of data and holds nine broad U.S. patents on its technology. 

20. Make time in your life for fiction.
“It emboldens your imagination, gives your mind respite, and arms you with tactics on creating motivating, inspiring messaging. Don't be afraid to take time out to free your mind from the strictures of reality.”

--Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skimlinks, a content monetization platform integrated with more than 20,000 merchants and processing more than 300 million clicks a month on more than 1.5 million sites around the world. 

21. Focus on nutrition and appreciation.
“I have been having the same breakfast of a protein shake with healthy fats, a fresh pressed juice full of vegetables, and a double espresso for as long as I can remember. While I press the juice, I recite the three things I am most appreciative of that morning. Thinking on the things that are most important in my life helps me take down the kale and beet juice with a smile.”

--Michael McDevitt, CEO of Terra's Kitchen, an e-commerce meal delivery service focused on providing healthy recipes in an eco-friendly vessel. 

22. Leave your work out of the bedroom.
"Your bedroom should be a sanctuary. Leave the TV, electronics, and work outside. By creating a work-free zone, you can reduce stress levels and, in turn, make the working time far more efficient...and most importantly, your partner will appreciate it."

--Mark Fachler, founder and CEO of Veestro, a plant-based, prepared meal delivery company. 

23. Use pictorial language to help people "see" the future.
“When describing the future, you can’t use facts and figures. You don’t have statistics to prove your points. You must largely rely on your imagination. And to convincingly bring your audience into the future, you must unlock their imaginations, helping them envision a different world. We all know, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ So it shouldn’t be a surprise that images, and visual language such as metaphors and analogies, are of vital importance in bridging the gap between the cerebral and the imaginative.”

--Rob-Jan de Jong, founder of Vongolo Consulting and author of Anticipate: The Art of Leading by Looking Ahead, which Business Traveller included on its "Books You Should Read" list. 

24. Exercise every day.
"I've exercised--whether it be lifting or running--religiously for the past 12 years of my life, and it has played a critical role in my daily attitude, work potential, and outlook on life."

--Hannibal Baldwin, co-founder and CEO at SiteZeus, which delivers location intelligence and real estate brokerage services to retail and hospitality brands through Web-based technology. 

25. Don’t panic and don’t run.
“Teams look to their leaders to set the tone for how the business is operated. I ensure I establish and create a sense of urgency, while balancing it with control of key situations. I make time to speak with frustrated customers and meet with unhappy employees to stay close to the issues my team navigates on a daily basis. From these interchanges, I am able to learn more than I ever could learn from all the things that go according to plan.”

--Mike Robinson, CEO of Broadview Networks, an information technology and communications partner for businesses across the U.S. Its flagship platform, OfficeSuite, is used by more than 210,000 business people nationwide. 

26. Use the 70/30 approach to professional life.
“Cultivate good judgment by learning to be comfortable making 100 percent of a decision with 70 percent of the data. This approach forces you to weigh what is really important and to understand the remainder of the data isn’t worth the time it takes to collect. Over time, you will make more good decisions and will accomplish more than the less confident and more risk averse. You will also be more competitive because you will accomplish more. Target being right 70 percent of the time with everything you do. Any extra time you spend on being right means you will miss opportunities, both personally and professionally.”

--Tom Cotney, CEO of Mblox, an application-to-person mobile messaging provider that helps brands build profitable relationships with their customers. 

27. Make lists.
“In addition to making a list of the top three things I must get done each day, I make a list of the three things that must be achieved each month and each week to ensure the company is staying on track.”

--Dr. Lisa Dolev, founder and CEO of Qylur, a provider of automated, self-service, bag-screening technology that was deployed at the World Cup last year. 

28. Encourage questions.
“Provide opportunity for at least one employee every day to ask you questions about whatever they have on their mind. It is very important to make employees feel like no question is out of limits. Q&A sessions with regular cadence make it easy for anyone in the organization to ask me questions. It is often these sessions that help me get the pulse of the company. It also becomes a forum for sharing ideas and discovering new ways of thinking or solving problems. But it's extremely important that these opportunities to ask questions are presented in all sorts of settings--large groups, small groups, one-on-ones, and a mix of formal and casual settings.”

--Jyoti Bansal, founder and CEO of AppDynamics, a San Francisco-based company with 1,600 customers and billings in the past 12 months topping $175 million. 

29. Talk to at least one customer every day.
“It's by far the most efficient and productive way to gather feedback on [the company] and to understand the business more deeply. My company is nothing without its users, and the information I receive from customers is hugely influential on how we conduct business and shape our plans for the future.”

--Navid Hadzaad, founder and CEO of GoButler, a free, on-demand service that operates as a digital personal assistant. 

30. Start your day with a clean inbox.
“In order to start the day completely organized, I get up at 6 a.m. and get to inbox zero. Anything that can be answered with a short note or delegated to a team lead, I get out of the way immediately. Other items I prioritize for later sit down email blocks or meetings later in the day. This way, I can be truly focused during morning meetings.”

--Benjamin Habbel, founder and CEO of Voyat, a retention platform for hospitality that works with hotel brands across 15 countries and is connecting over 50,000 guests to hotels every month.

Leading Posthumously: Required Learning for Leading in Complexity

It is difficult to find a unique angle on leadership these days, or even a justifiable reason to write about the subject. I would, however, like to try the following on for size: Navigating and guiding an organizational ship through an increasingly turbulent world, demands a leader to lead posthumously. Simply translated, to lead posthumously, is to lead as if you had already died. However, a more applicable definition (and the one I am using for the purpose of this paper), is to lead as if no one is watching. Leading posthumously is leading as if the usual constraints of corporate life, along with the resulting trappings of a leader’s ego - career aspirations, personal power, pleasing the boss, and the year-end bonus - are simply nonexistent. When leading posthumously, a leader effectively has no concerns for how he may personally feel or benefit from his acts of leadership. Instead, the posthumous leader’s actions are informed and motivated exclusively through both reading himself, and reading the air.

The idea of the posthumous leader is borrowed from a speech delivered by the novelist Jeffrey Eugenides to a group of young writers who had just won the 2012 Whiting Award. He was warning them not to let this award interfere with their ability to write naturally and spontaneously.   He in turn had borrowed the idea from Nadine Gordimer, a South African Novel Laureate, who said, “A serious writer should try to live posthumously.” The same basic tenants apply to any professional acting posthumously; when living posthumously there is no requirement to market, maintain, or improve one’s reputation. In the case of a posthumous leader, he  simply feels into a complex situation, and by doing so, his true nature directs the organic emergence of the behaviour required to effectively manage the situation.

Posthumous also implies a merging with the earth, no longer being separate from the environment. From earth we come, to earth we go. There is no more “me” and “other”. A leader thinking in this manner lives somewhat paradoxically.  While he is true to his nature – not easily swayed by doubts or what he believes others think should be done - , he is also very much attuned to the environment wherein he is playing a leadership role. The posthumous leader’s identity is deeply grounded inside him, however it is constantly calibrated and fine-tuned by the people and situations he interacts with.  His identity and leadership actions are both forming, and being formed by, the environment he is part of. Therefore, the leader’s primary responsibility is to spark the fire of the leadership process and the emergent leadership behaviours and actions in a particular situation. and create the necessary conditions for leadership to emerge.

The leadership point of view implied in the metaphor leading posthumously, is required to create an image of the structure, tension and collective behaviours required to deal with the current complexity of corporate or organizational life. Circumstances and changes emerge very suddenly and unpredictably for those in leadership roles. There are many variables that need to be addressed and dealt with and the relationship between cause and effect are not obvious or linear. How does one lead in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment?  The leadership process required for dealing with a VUCA environment is not a direct or solo one.  It is not about creating a plan with defined strategies and tasks that hit the problem head on, with known and prescribed solutions. The leadership process implies a more indirect or oblique approach to managing the opportunity/problem. The leadership process also implies recruiting maximum leadership help from others in the system.  The problems are often too big or complex to be addressed on one’s own. Individual heroic leadership is from a different time and usually not useful in the current and future world(s) we live in. Today’s problems often require a collective and integrated response, that may be less about solving and more about managing the problem until the solution emerges.  An effective leader must be deeply aware and present in who he knows he is, while simultaneously profoundly connected to, and integrated with, other key internal and external stakeholders, as well as his environment.

Being deeply present in yourself requires both self-knowledge (an understanding and appreciation of your natural motives, values, strengths and limitations) and an ability to pay exquisite attention to your environment.  From this secure and grounded sense of his capabilities, with minimum ego distractions, a leader is positioned to respond and adapt appropriately, and apply himself to external environmental needs, rather than internal personal needs. This two-prong combination allows a posthumous leader to put in place the leadership process necessary to create the adaptive environment required to facilitate an appropriate response to VUCA situations, whether they be opportunities or threats. The posthumous leader has a mature sense of what can be done by himself, and where he needs to reach out to others for help in order to complement or scaffold his capabilities. At this level of leadership, the leader is simultaneously grounded in his deeper authentic self, while also seeing his identity as part of a collective  "we".

A leader’s realization that his identity is profoundly integrated with others is a much more subtle and deeper sense of connection than what we have traditionally called “good teamwork”.  A leader who operates at a posthumous level of development knows that he is not separate from what goes on around him, and he constantly evolves as a function of the impact of his relationships and interactions with his environment. Organizational and Environmental impact happens as a result of changes in specific behaviours within these relationships and interactions.

Organizational transformation occurs when a changed behaviour reaches critical mass. As a leader’s behaviour evolves, a ‘domino’ effect occurs through his own and subsequent multiple local interactions with those around him; his individual changes are mimicked by those he encounters and consequently transferred to others.  Change within the greater organization begins through social infection, and then leads to sustainable system change. This system change will then cycle or spiral back to local interactions, affecting their quality at another level or iteration. This is an ongoing dance where the leadership process is designed to stimulate local interactions that are intended to produce behaviour change that will hopefully lead to favourable outcomes.

These outcomes are not always precisely predictable or even able to be planned for.  There can be a general sense of what a good result would be, but given that the route isn’t direct and singular, but rather oblique and multiple, it is quite challenging to predict how that good result will come about. Both the leader’s and the group’s evolving identity are impacting and being impacted by changes emerging from multiple local interactions. Both the internal relationships with each other and also the emerging relationship with the stakeholders in the environment are part of this ongoing dance.

For years we have operated within a leadership paradigm that has been about developing individual leaders in a horizontal manner. Developing in a horizontal manner means to help leaders develop a bigger or more complete toolbox of skills, technical and interpersonal, to maximize that leader’s positive impact on his subordinates and environment in his current role. This type of leadership development existed in a more stable and constant world where we believed we could predict where we were going, understood what problems would potentially surface, and had known solutions for overcoming those problems. Horizontal leadership development existed in a world of individual leaders planning out desired outcomes, and then executing their plan through mobilizing others toward its accomplishment.

Robert Kegan wrote a book a number of years ago called In Over Our Heads, which was about how complexity in the world was outstripping our individual capacity as leaders to deal with the complexity. The problems leaders encountered were changing, and their toolbox was not the right toolbox to solve the level of the problems that Kegan saw emerging. The kind of capability Kegan outlined as necessary to deal with the complexity of their world and subsequent problems was not horizontal, but instead a kind of vertical capability.

How do we help leaders get bigger than the scope of the problems they are faced with in this VUCA world? How do we help them gain perspective on unpredictable events or problems?  Rather than being subject to these problems, can we help them step above them and objectify them?  How do we help them create agile, adaptive systems to dance with these VUCA environments, leading to organizational and societal benefits?  There are two primary ways by which this can be done.

First, today’s leader needs to develop a more complex notion of who he is within the various environments he acts in. In this way he can increase his ability to get on the balcony, and out of the weeds in order to “see” the problem in its entirety.  Today’s leader should not see himself as a hero or separate entity about to act on his world(s). A leader needs to see himself as part of these worlds, and understand that his job is to create an environment with enough creative tension to enable or prepare it to quickly adapt to the unpredictable events that will face. Today’s leader must lead posthumously.

Second, a leader can grow vertically through continuously recognizing and improving upon his capabilities, but also through understanding when he requires support beyond his skill set and needs to ask for help. One of the elements of knowing oneself intimately is to know one’s limitations and how to effectively scaffold those limitations with the right complementary resources within the leadership process or environment.  Dealing with complexity requires a coalition of leadership. An effective leader understands that leading posthumously is a leadership process requiring more than the individual leader

Years ago, when I was a young man studying Tai Chi in Vancouver’s Chinatown, our master showed us an old scratchy film he had brought over with him from China. It was of an old Master of his, who was blind, sitting in lotus position with flat stones in his hands. He was surrounded by swordsmen who would attack him from all sides. The blind master was able to deflect the slashes of the sword, through blocking the slash of the sword with one of the stones.  He was demonstrating uncanny ability at anticipating, or feeling into his environment, reading the air, and responding to those unpredictable events as they occurred in the moment. He was able to do this for two reasons.  His sense of himself was both deep and centred in the here and now, while simultaneously feeling a part of everything around him.  He was not acting alone, but saw himself as part of a process that was there to deal effectively with life as it presented itself.  The Master was operating posthumously.

Author:  Brian Brittain (Brittain Consulting) helps CEOs and their executive teams improve results through having conversations about what matters. Specializing in leadership development, succession planning, organizational design, and stakeholder alignment, KRW Associate Partner Brian Brittain collaborates with CEOs, board members, and senior executives to align senior talent capability with changing business requirements.  The outcome of his work is a much more aligned, capable, and motivated senior leadership talent pool focused on, committed to, and capable of executing an evolving dynamic strategy.