Try Leadership On

Five habits. Everyday leadership.

Leadership is not reserved for managers or a job title. It can start with the way anyone notices, contributes, follows through, and makes other people’s work visible.

These five habits offer practical ways to try leadership on in the work already in front of you. Choose the contribution that fits your role, your relationships, and the moment.

Create your Leadership Snapshot

A shared language for contribution

Start where the work needs you.

There is no required order and no single right habit for every moment. The aim is a useful, respectful contribution—not more authority than your role calls for.

Understand with intention

Listen Up

Slow down long enough to understand context before moving to advice, fixing, or a conclusion.

Why it helps: It makes room for the context, concerns, and experience that can otherwise get missed. Understanding the situation first can make a response more useful to the people doing the work.

A moment to notice

A colleague raises a concern, and your first instinct is to solve it quickly.

One move to try

Ask an open question, reflect back what you heard, and check what support would be useful.

Try saying

“Before we jump to a fix, what part of this is most important for me to understand?”

Contribute with intention

Speak Up

Offer a useful observation, question, or idea that helps the work move with more clarity.

Why it helps: It gives a useful observation or question a chance to improve the work. A thoughtful contribution can add clarity without needing a formal title or the final say.

A moment to notice

A discussion is moving ahead, and you notice a detail that could affect the outcome.

One move to try

Name the detail, connect it to the work, and ask one focused question.

Try saying

“I noticed one detail that may affect our next step. Could we check it before we decide?”

Own with intention

Step Up

Take role-appropriate ownership of a loose end, a next step, or a useful improvement.

Why it helps: It turns a useful intention into a clear contribution. Taking an appropriate next step can help a group regain momentum while keeping ownership visible and realistic.

A moment to notice

A task has stalled because the next action is unclear or no one has claimed it yet.

One move to try

Offer a specific next step, name what you can own, and confirm the handoff or timing.

Try saying

“I can take the first pass on this and share what I learn by Thursday. Does that help the group move forward?”

Deliver with intention

Follow Up

Build trust through dependable commitments, clear updates, and early notice when a plan changes.

Why it helps: It helps people plan around each other with fewer surprises. Clear updates make a commitment easier to rely on, even when a plan needs to change.

A moment to notice

You agreed to a next step, and another person is depending on your update to continue their work.

One move to try

Set a realistic check-in point and send a concise update before the other person has to chase it.

Try saying

“I said I would circle back today. The work is still in progress, and I will send the next update by 3 p.m. tomorrow.”

Recognize with intention

Lift Up

Make contribution visible by naming specific effort, insight, or shared credit with care.

Why it helps: It makes worthwhile work easier to see and gives credit where it belongs. Specific recognition can reinforce the kind of shared effort a group wants to keep making.

A moment to notice

Someone's work helped a project move forward, but that contribution could easily go unnoticed.

One move to try

Name what they did, how it helped, and include the people who shaped the result.

Try saying

“Jordan's early questions helped us spot the risk, and the whole group built a stronger path from there.”

How the habits can connect

A useful handoff, not a fixed sequence.

Listen Up → Speak Up: context can make a question or idea more useful.
Speak Up → Step Up: a helpful observation can reveal a next step you can own.
Step Up → Follow Up: an offered commitment matters more when people hear what happened next.
Listen Up → Lift Up: paying attention can help you name another person’s contribution specifically.

A brief self-reflection

See your Leadership Snapshot.

Use ten quick prompts to notice which habits you have been using lately and choose one practical next move. No sign-up is needed; your answers stay on this open page and clear when you reload.

Ten questions · past two weeks

Your Leadership Snapshot

Look back on the past two weeks. Ten brief frequency choices help you notice how you have been using five everyday habits to contribute, whatever your role.

Listen UpReady to reflect

Speak UpReady to reflect

Step UpReady to reflect

Follow UpReady to reflect

Lift UpReady to reflect

My everydayhabitsfive ways to contribute

Ten brief frequency choices make room to notice each habit in turn.

This is guided self-reflection, not a validated assessment or a judgment of your performance. Your responses stay in this open page; no account is needed.

Want to practice these habits with your people? Explore workshops.