Why Mike Vrabel Demands One Mindset Not One Personality
February 4, 2026
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Starting a behavior change is easy. Sustaining it is hard.
Anyone can commit to a new diet for a day, show up to the gym on January 1st, or start holding one-on-one meetings with their team for a week. These are all behavior changes. They shift how we act, think, or lead. However, when novelty fades, the excuses begin. The best leaders know this struggle all too well. Because the trick isn’t starting the change, it’s sustaining it.
Starting a behavior change is easy. Sustaining it is hard. When novelty fades, the excuses begin.
If someone depends on you, you are a leader. A pattern has emerged in my coaching: the best leaders turn losing behavior into winning behavior.
That means when a behavior isn’t serving the team or the organization, it has to change, either in their own behavior or in others’. If it doesn’t, the consequences are clear: either the behavior changes, or the person will.
But the change can’t be temporary; it must be lasting. If you don’t know how to sustain behavior change in yourself, you’ll never be able to guide team members through it.
Behavior change is a shift in how we think or act that produces a new result. In leadership, it means replacing old patterns that hold people back with new ones that spark progress. Since leaders don’t have the luxury of ignoring losing behaviors, they must take on the complex challenge of behavior change. Which might seem simple, but it’s incredibly difficult.
Consider healthcare. Doctors in the US perform nearly two million angioplasties and bypass surgeries each year. Yet even after these expensive and traumatic surgeries, 50% of blockages return within two years, and 90% of patients fail to sustain the necessary behavior change to support their health. If sustaining behavior change is this hard when your life depends on it, it’s no surprise teams and organizations struggle.
Behavior change is hard, even when your life is on the line.
In business, behavior change might mean adopting a new CRM, holding consistent one-on-ones, or addressing underperformance directly. The challenge isn’t knowing what to change—most leaders already know. The challenge is sustaining it long enough for losing behaviors to be replaced by winning ones consistently.
Executive coach and author of The Present Executive, Scott Cornwell, joined me on The John Eades Podcast. He shared a framework that gets to the heart of sustaining meaningful behavior change. Whether you’re trying to sustain behavior change in yourself or guide others through it, here is the recipe:
For any real shift in behavior to occur, it must start with your mindset. Every long-term winning behavior begins with how you think about yourself. Here’s why: what you believe shapes how you act.
For example, “I am” statements are powerful labels:
“I am too busy for one-on-ones.”
“I am not good with conflict.”
“I am a perfectionist.”
These labels and beliefs either set you up to win or keep you losing. The hard truth is that if you don’t shift your mindset or if the person you’re working with doesn’t shift theirs, any new behavior will eventually collapse under the weight of the old belief. Put simply, all meaningful change begins in the mind.
All meaningful change begins in the mind.
Winning behaviors don’t survive on belief alone. They need structure and accountability to make them stick. As Cornwell said, “Structures must be put in place to support accountability to the behavior change.”
Structure and accountability aren’t negatives when it comes to behavior change, they are requirements. Accountability means accounting for your activity, accepting responsibility, and disclosing results in a transparent way.
For leaders, this could mean coaching sessions, difficult conversations, or consistent feedback to reinforce the right actions.
It’s important to note that structure and accountability are not micromanagement. They are the infrastructure to support the right behaviors until they become habits.
The final ingredient is practice. Losing behaviors get rooted in repetition, and so do winning ones. Practices executed consistently lead to better results. One action, or even a few days in a row, is not enough. It’s a good start, but it’s far from sustained behavior change.
If you are trying to unleash a behavior change in someone else, it means getting your hands dirty and ensuring the application of action is correct. For example, if you’re a sales manager, it’s joining a sales call to coach.
Remember, most people start with the best of intentions, but their humanness gets in the way. Reinforce consistency because it beats intensity. Or as a mentor of mine says, “Small actions repeated consistently create transformation.”
Here’s what doesn’t work: managers and leaders asking team members to change when they are unwilling or unable to make material behavior changes themselves. You are more than a direction setter; you are an example.
Too often executives and managers complain about others’ need for change but refuse to look in the mirror. But not you, not today. You wouldn’t still be reading if you weren’t willing to take these words to heart: behavior change starts with you.
Starting a behavior change is easy, but sustaining it is hard. You don’t get to ignore its difficulty. Your responsibility is to turn losing behavior into winning behavior for yourself and for your team.
The formula is simple:
Mindset – Adopt beliefs that support the change.
Structure – Put accountability in place.
Practice – Repeat daily until it sticks.
Apply it to yourself first. Then help your team do the same. Because leadership isn’t about starting change, it’s about sustaining it.
You can listen to my full conversation with Scott Cornwell here: Why Your Identity Shapes Every Result You Get.
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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.
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