Y9. Build habits that last
Create routines that support consistent behaviour. Habits make improvement stick.
Resources to support growth in this behaviour
Whether this behaviour has been chosen through Step 1. Diagnose, highlighted through reflection or coaching, or identified as a school or trust priority, you can now follow the steps below to develop and embed it in your daily leadership practice.
Step 2. Learn: Read Everyone Succeeds: 54 Leadership Behaviours to Transform Your School to understand what great leadership looks like in practice. Each behaviour is grounded in research and real examples from schools and businesses.
Step 3. Reflect: Use the Everyone Succeeds Workbook to apply ideas to your own context.
Guided reflection, practical actions, and space for planning turn understanding into improvement.
Step 4. Apply: Work through the Leadership Toolkit for this behaviour. Use the Build Habits That Last toolkit to introduce small, high-leverage behaviours consistently until they become automatic and reliable.
Step 5. Coach and practice: Use the Build habits that last Coach and Practise Frameworks to strengthen the behaviour through coaching questions about cues and consistency, rehearsing repeatable routines so improvement endures.
These can be used individually or with colleagues to embed key behaviours.
Step 6. Plan: Set measurable goals using the 90 Day Leadership Planner.
Turn improvement into action by tracking your focus and progress over time, with completed examples for different career stages.
Step 7. Lead: Apply your learning to real situations through the Scenario Finder.
Over fifty scenarios link directly to the behaviours that help you solve the challenges that matter most in your school.
One book suggestion
Atomic Habits – James Clear (2018).
This book strengthens your practice by showing how small, intentional actions compound over time and create lasting behavioural change. Buy the book.
Immunity to Change – Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey (2009).
This book deepens your understanding by revealing the hidden internal barriers that often undermine habit formation and offering practical tools to overcome them. Buy the book.
References from the Everyone Succeeds book
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. London: Random House.
Fogg, B.J. (2020). Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. London: Virgin Books.
Gollwitzer, P.M. (1999) ‘Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans’, American Psychologist, 54(7), pp. 493-503.
Gollwitzer, P.M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology*, 38, 69-119.
Kegan, R., & Lahey, L.L. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organisation. Boston: Harvard Business Press.