The Surprising Truth About Becoming a Top-Notch Leader
Most professionals assume that becoming an exceptional leader requires a dramatic overhaul — longer hours, advanced degrees, years of high-pressure experience, or some rare, innate talent that either you have or you don't. But what if the gap between being a decent manager and being the leader everyone talks about in glowing terms is far smaller than you think?
According to researcher and author Andy Ellis, CEO of Duha and author of 1% Leadership: Master the Small, Daily Improvements that Set Great Leaders Apart, the answer is almost absurdly simple: you only need to get 1% better. That's it. Just one percent of consistent, intentional improvement is enough to elevate you from an average manager to the kind of leader whose name is synonymous with words like "engaging," "awesome," "epic," and "phenomenal."
"There are no 'irrefutable laws' of leadership or power; there is no single secret," Ellis explains. "Anyone, at any stage of their career, can continuously make tiny '1% at a time' improvements." And those tiny improvements, compounded over time, are what separate truly outstanding leaders from everyone else.
Why Small Improvements Beat Big Leaps Every Time
The idea of marginal gains isn't new — it became famous in the world of elite sports, particularly with British cycling — but applying it to leadership is a game-changer. The reason small improvements are so powerful is rooted in consistency. A massive transformation attempted all at once is exhausting, unsustainable, and often demoralizing when it fails. A 1% improvement, on the other hand, is achievable today, tomorrow, and every day after that.
Think about what that looks like in practice: listening just a little more carefully in your next one-on-one, offering one more specific piece of praise this week, or carving out five extra minutes to check in with a team member who seems disengaged. None of these actions feel like hard work. But over weeks and months, they compound into a leadership identity that people trust, respect, and want to follow.
Six Areas Where a 1% Improvement Makes a Major Difference
Ellis identifies six core development areas where leaders can focus their incremental efforts. Mastering even one of these with a 1% mindset can noticeably shift how your team perceives and responds to you.
1. Keep the Future in Check
Great leaders are fully present with their teams — listening, sharing, and engaging in the moment. But many managers fall into the trap of letting anxiety about future outcomes cloud their current behavior. Worrying about failure, Ellis argues, actually makes failure more likely. "Only by engaging in the present, with that worry set aside, can we find the path to success."
The 1% improvement here is simple: when a negative outcome starts creeping into your thinking, consciously set it aside during your interactions. Give the present moment your full attention. Your team will feel the difference immediately.
2. Build and Sustain Trust
Trust is the foundation of every high-performing team, and it is built in small moments, not grand gestures. Keeping a promise, admitting a mistake, or being transparent about a difficult decision — these micro-actions accumulate into a reputation for reliability. A 1% better leader is one who looks for just one additional opportunity each week to demonstrate that they are trustworthy, consistent, and honest.
3. Communicate With Clarity and Purpose
Poor communication is one of the most common complaints employees have about their managers. And yet most leaders believe they communicate well. The gap between how clearly you think you're communicating and how your team actually receives your messages can be enormous. A 1% improvement might mean spending two extra minutes clarifying the "why" behind an assignment, or following up a verbal instruction with a brief written summary. Small habits, significant results.
4. Develop the People Around You
Top-notch leaders are defined not just by their own performance but by how much they elevate the people around them. Coaching doesn't have to mean formal sessions or elaborate development plans. A 1% better leader looks for one small coaching moment per day — a question that prompts reflection, a piece of constructive feedback delivered with care, or a stretch assignment given to a team member who is ready for it.
5. Create a Culture of Psychological Safety
Teams that feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and challenge the status quo consistently outperform those that don't. Building psychological safety doesn't require a culture overhaul. It starts with how you react in small moments: Do you get defensive when someone pushes back on your idea? Do you dismiss concerns quickly? A 1% improvement might simply mean pausing before reacting and asking one genuine follow-up question instead.
6. Model the Energy and Standards You Expect
Leaders set the tone — whether they intend to or not. Your attitude, work ethic, and how you treat people under pressure all become the unofficial standard for your team. A 1% improvement here might mean walking into Monday morning's meeting with a bit more energy and optimism, or visibly holding yourself accountable to the same standards you set for others. These aren't heroic acts. They are small, repeatable behaviors that define leadership culture over time.
The Compounding Power of 1% Leadership
Here's what makes the 1% leadership philosophy so compelling: it removes the excuse that great leadership requires superhuman qualities. It doesn't. It requires intention, consistency, and the willingness to reflect on where you can improve — even just a little — each day.
If you improve by 1% every week across these six areas, the cumulative effect over a year is profound. Your team's engagement rises. Retention improves. Communication becomes clearer. Trust deepens. And your own confidence as a leader grows because you're not waiting to become someone else — you're simply becoming a slightly better version of who you already are.
Start Your 1% Leadership Journey Today
The most effective action you can take right now is to pick just one of the six areas above and identify a single small change you can make this week. Not a sweeping initiative. Not a leadership offsite. Just one small, specific behavior shift. Write it down, try it, and notice what happens.
Top-notch leadership isn't built in a day, and it isn't built by extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. It's built by ordinary people making extraordinary commitments to tiny, consistent improvements. As Andy Ellis puts it, anyone at any stage of their career can do this. The only question is whether you'll start today.
- Choose one of the six development areas to focus on this week.
- Identify one specific behavior you can improve by just 1%.
- Track your progress and reflect on the impact after seven days.
- Add a second area the following week and build momentum from there.
The leaders your team will remember — the ones described as engaging, phenomenal, and truly great — weren't born that way. They got there one percent at a time. And so can you.