How to Thrive as a Leader: 8 Personal Practices
How can we thrive as leaders? I could easily talk about this from a very academic point of view, but as I thought more about it, this is a topic that’s very tied up in my own experience. These practices are all things that I actually do. And my hope is, for those of you who sit in leadership positions—Black women or not, this information will resonate and give you some ideas on how you can begin to practice thriving in your own daily work.
In both the research that came out of Black Women Thriving and the anecdotal experiences I've had, as a Black woman and witnessing other Black women, I've seen many leaders across sectors who find themselves in what I call a survival loop.
It’s a familiar pattern: leaders are supposed to hold it all together for themselves and for their teams, for the mission of their organizations, or for the bottom line—but not for themselves.
Based on my experience and what research says, too many of us have been taught to earn our survival at work. So many employees are put in positions to survive at work—mentally, physically, psychologically, and in some cases financially.
For those of us in that position, we're lucky if we ever get to think about how we can flourish at work. The loop I’ve witnessed for nearly thirty years in the workplace—work until you're tapped out, take the weekend to recover, and then deplete it all again over the next week.
As a person and as the founder of a company, it’s clear to me that we can’t cultivate thriving—feeling energetic about work, learning positively, feeling autonomy, feeling connected—if we aren’t experiencing that ourselves.
Eight Personal Practices of Thriving Leaders
Research points to eight practices common to leaders who thrive—that is, who experience a genuine psychological state of thriving at work:
Prioritize well-being and boundaries – Protect energy by setting and modeling clear limits on time, communication, and workload.
Commit to self-development – Invest in growth by reflecting, learning, and actively seeking new skills or insights.
Stay grounded and trust inner knowledge – Rely on instinct or “spidey-sense” as a touchstone for decisions.
Lead with integrity and balanced judgment – Align decisions with personal, team, and organizational values, even under urgency.
Be proactive and autonomous – Take ownership of work and model that ownership for the team.
Foster positive emotions and optimism – Celebrate wins, seek perspective on challenges, and invite others’ viewpoints.
Value diversity, equity, and inclusion – See DEI as a net positive for teams and organizations.
Connect work to higher purpose and meaning – Routinely link tasks to organizational values or impact, helping teams find meaning in their work.
Quick Tips for Thriving
Groundedness & Inner Knowing
Being grounded and trusting your gut is not woo-woo.
Since emotional-intelligence research exploded twenty-five years ago, EQ has become fundamental to good leadership. Feeling grounded protects my values and how I want to show up.
Three quick practices I use (each of these only take two or three minutes);
Breath work / “Five Things” scan – Notice what I can see, smell, hear, taste, and touch to return to the present.
Two-sentence journaling – Write a very short description of what’s happening to externalize and examine it later.
“West Wing” walk-and-talk – Verbally air the thoughts swirling in my head while moving.
Being grounded doesn’t erase chaos, but it keeps me from magnifying it and helps me handle it.
Ask yourself: What practice helps me stay centered when things feel urgent—or even when they don’t?
Purpose & Meaning
Thriving often means feeling that what we do is worthwhile. But we can over-think our purpose until it becomes an unrealistic goal.
I’ve seen organizations where only the mission or bottom line matters, pushing people to set aside their well-being. That’s survival thinking, not thriving.
Our labor is one part of life’s meaning. As leaders, we must right-size people’s relationship to organizational purpose—giving perspective and guardrails. Modeling healthy boundaries around meaning is itself a leadership act.
Questions to ask yourself and your team are:
When’s the last time I explained why something matters — not just what needs to be done?
Have I actually said out loud, “That made a difference,” when someone did something well?
Am I giving people real room to shape their work — or just assigning tasks and hoping they feel empowered?
What I believe—through studying, researching, and practicing—is that individuals, teams, and organizations can thrive, even during chaotic times. It’s an intentional choice that requires commitment to shift.
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