Leaders have a lot to learn. Which begs the question, how do they do it all?

Here are three basic tips for developing successfully as a leader.

#1 – Be patient. If you are a success-oriented person and your boss gives you feedback, you want to tackle everything immediately, to get it right as soon as possible.

But there is a lot to learn, and it takes time to establish all the habits of personal strength and instill all the effective leadership skills. This is not the kind of thing you can push through the eye of the needle. You may catch on quickly, but improving work habits doesn’t happen overnight.

#2 – Own your own learning. Nobody can make you learn. Attending a course on effective leadership skills does not automatically impart the skills to you. All an instructor can do is instruct, deliver information. It is up to you, and no one else, to learn from him. You really are in charge of your own learning, your own leadership development.

Understand that your last training camp is not in the classroom. He’s at the workplace. So find people around you who can train and guide you. Find people who are willing to give you feedback and listen to them. Put yourself in challenging situations and find people who can help you talk through the process of learning from these experiences. Learn to train yourself.

#3 – Focus on improving one area at a time. Yes, there is a lot to learn. But the most important secret of all is to focus on improving one ability or strength at a time. If you’re a hard charger, you probably have a lot of personal development goals. It may feel like the path to quick success is to tackle them all at once.

But imagine that you play basketball and belong to a league. Let’s say his weakest area is free kicks. So one of your teammates comes up to you in practice and says, “You know, you don’t have your elbow in the right position.” The problem is that he feels uncomfortable when you try to do what he says. But try it anyway while he watches.

But then he says, “You also want your middle finger to be your guide to the basket.” It sounds like a basic technique, but now you’re working on two things at once, and they’re both awkward.

Sensing your desire to excel, he adds, “You don’t set up for the shot the same way every time. You’ve got to have a routine, man. Hit it the same way every time.” Again, good advice! You know that if you could master all of these techniques, you would make most of your free throws. But it’s too much all at once! Everything feels awkward, you don’t know how to fit them into a flowing activity, and you don’t know what to focus on.

Smart money is to focus on one thing and practice it until you start to feel comfortable. At that point you won’t have fully mastered the technique, but at least it’s no longer a problem. Then you can focus on the following.

If you try to implement five or six changes in your life at once, you won’t be able to give anything the concentrated effort it needs. You will dilute your efforts and, in the end, not much will happen. You won’t get the improvement you expect.

It is essential to be your best coach and to recognize that it is a journey. You can develop effective leadership skills and strengths over time, if applied to yourself. Just remember that it will require patience, you will need to take responsibility for your learning, and most of all, you will need to focus. One thing at a time: that’s where the magic is.