Good workplace habits take time to develop, and it’s a manager’s job to model these habits for employees and help them foster their own positive routines. This requires examining the factors that cause employees to form good habits as well as those factors that hinder them. Through proactive support, leaders can help stop their team members from developing counterproductive habits and lead to a strong, productive cohort. One thing to consider is that bad habits often develop out of a sense of self-preservation. David Maxfield, vice president of research at VitalSmarts, says employees are sometimes trained to be hypercompetitive and establish themselves as the most valuable person in the room. As a result, one employee under Maxfield was hostile toward his teammates, even when they were bringing good ideas to the table. Because they weren’t his ideas, he felt the need to dismiss them. Maxfield says the first step in undoing this bad habit was to assure this employee he didn’t have anything to prove. "He had won the race, and nobody was competing with him anymore," Maxfield said. "He was a valued member with a secure position on the team.”