Successful leadership isn't just about adding new skills and experiences —it's about learning YOU.

Sustaining Leadership Impact: Your Six Steps to Long-Term Success

Read my latest post about sustaining your leadership impact: Your Six Steps to Long-Term Success! Understanding your motivations, strengths, aspirations, and challenges reveals a pattern about who you are.

When I founded NewlandRock, I wanted to create a leadership advisory offering that reflected my core beliefs with over 20 years of talent strategy experience – One critical insight emerged: to maximise leadership impact, we must take a deeply personal approach.   

'Combining how we live, and lead is essential to leadership effectiveness.’ 

'Kate Thomas  

Successful leadership isn't just about adding new skills and experiences

— it's about learning YOU.  

Understanding your motivations, strengths, aspirations, and challenges reveals a pattern about who you are. This deeper understanding of yourself offers insights into what you want, why you want it, and what your needs are. It's important to align your leadership style with your approach to well-being.  

You lead with clarity, energy, and fulfilment when you sustain this balance.   

Here are six key steps to sustaining your leadership impact.  

1. Make Kindness Your Leadership Superpower  

Kindness, empathy, and compassion can transform your leadership effectiveness.   

Studies suggest that leading with kindness shifts brain activity from stress-driven survival mode, which typically leans on an over-reliance on rational thinking, causing a cocktail of challenges from burnout and rigid decision-making.  Instead, leaders can command a different response sequence when leading through kindness first - accessing critical intuitive thinking, connection and unity, which unlocks the security to think creatively and innovatively, feeding forward-focused initiatives – a mindset of possibility and inspiration.   

The Power of Empathy in Leadership  

Empathy strengthens team dynamics by fostering trust, improving influence, and resolving conflicts. When leaders shift from a "my way" approach to empathetic inquiry—seeking to understand why others think and act a certain way—relationships become more collaborative and productive.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Approach leadership through the lens of kindness and empathy to inspire trust, unlock creativity, and lead with greater impact.  

2. Incorporate Conscious Exercise into Your Leadership Routine  

Physical activity is more than just a fitness tool; it's a leadership advantage. Research from Stanford University's Shirzad Chamine, highlights the connection between exercise and mental fitness. Consciously exercise—fully engaging in movement rather than operating on autopilot. This deliberate approach strengthens cognitive function, reduces stress, and enhances problem-solving ability in more complex scenarios.  

Tips for Conscious Exercise:  

• Walk with intention – A brisk pace of 120 steps per minute boosts brain function.  

• Move forward – Walking or running naturally shifts thoughts to the future.  

• Lift weights – Strength training stimulates osteocalcin, which supports brain health.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Engaging in movement with intention boosts mental clarity, resilience, and leadership effectiveness.  

3. Nourish Your Leadership Life 

    

Leaders often face high-stress environments that lead to unhealthy habits. Nurturement—both physically and mentally—is essential for sustaining impact.  

Three Questions to Ask Yourself Daily:  

1. How nourished does my body and mind feel?  
2. What nourishment does my body and mind need from me today?  
3. What is my body and mind capable of today?  

Taking moments to pause and reconnect with yourself leads to better energy management, sharper decision-making, and a more intentional and effective leadership style.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Prioritise self-awareness and nourishment to sustain your leadership performance.  

4. Curate Your Leadership Circle  

Jim Rohn famously said, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." Leadership success is influenced by the relationships we cultivate. Surrounding yourself with people who challenge and inspire you is critical to sustaining long-term impact.  

Action Steps:  

• Audit your network – Identify who uplifts and challenges you.  

• Seek mentorship and peer learning – Connect with those who push your thinking.  

• Be intentional about relationships – Align with those who support your growth.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Build a leadership network that energises, challenges, and accelerates personal impact.  

5. Expand Your Range to Stay Relevant  

Feeling stuck in your leadership journey often stems from a lack of growth. Leaders who cultivate a learning mindset stay agile and adaptable.  

How to Expand Your Leadership Perspective:  

• Engage in diverse learning – Read outside your industry and explore new ideas.  

• Reframe challenges – Approach obstacles as opportunities.  

• Embrace curiosity – Ask new questions and seek different viewpoints.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Stay relevant and inspired by continuously expanding your leadership range.  

6. Prioritise Sleep as a Leadership Strategy  

Leadership effectiveness starts with rest. Despite the glorification of working 'all the hours', research consistently shows that sleep fuels cognitive performance, emotional intelligence, and decision-making.  

Simple Sleep Tweaks for Leaders:  

• Treat sleep as an essential event – Prioritise it like a business meeting.  

• Create a pre-sleep routine – Reduce screen time and engage in relaxation rituals.  

• Address rest deficits—Rest looks different for everyone. Personalise what you need by identifying gaps in your mental, emotional, and social rest.  

💡 Key Takeaway: Prioritise sleep as a leadership tool to sustain clarity, resilience, and high performance.  

Final Thoughts  

Sustainable leadership is not simply about working harder; it's about working smarter. It focuses on self-awareness, well-being, and intentionality. By personalising and integrating these six steps into your leadership approach, along with our Four Levers of Leadership Impact roadmap, you can create a lasting impact, maintain your energy, and lead with authenticity.  

Which of these six steps resonates most with you at this stage of your leadership success? 

NewlandRock - You take yourself to New Land!