How to Promote Behavioral Change (by David Maxfield | Chief Learning Officer)

-By Development Network-   Changing behavior is a great challenge for a chief learning officer, yet it is often necessary for organizations to increase productivity and reduce costs. Now is the perfect time to address a tough finding: performance reviews, with their careful improvement plans, aren't sufficient to change behavior.   Year after year, managers tell employees what they need to do to succeed and advance, and at the outset, many employees buy into these plans, but few ever change. Managers hope telling an employee what needs to be altered and giving incentives to do so is enough, but it's not. Incentives are just one component of a multifaceted approach necessary for true behavior change to occur.   The following findings come from VitalSmarts' 2009 Lake Wobegon at Work study and this year's Career-Limiting Habits study.   a) Most employees have unrealistically high opinions of their performance, are surprised by negative feedback, don't believe they get clear feedback on what they should do, and believe their boss is holding them back. In fact, 87 percent of the employees surveyed said they have bosses who have prevented them from getting the pay, promotions or other opportunities they wanted because of a performance concern.   b) More than half of the managers surveyed said they have employees who are stuck at performance levels below their potential.   c) Most employees think their bosses are primarily concerned with their technical skills. However, 46 percent of bosses reported that addressing employees' bad habits is three times more important than increasing their technical skills.   d) Employees' top five career-limiting habits (CLHs) are unreliability, "it's not my job," procrastination, resistance to change and negative attitude. Other CLHs include disrespect, short-term focus, selfishness, passive aggressiveness and risk aversion.   e) Seventy percent of employees who are aware their boss is unhappy with their performance can't verbalize what they are doing wrong or how they are going to change.   Let's say in 2006 Geoff, a graphic designer who supports marketing, sales and other teams, receives some startling news during his performance review when his new manager announces that most of his colleagues hate working with him. He's well-liked, but behind his back, Geoff's co-workers said unless they lit a fire under him he never delivered the goods, though he always promised everything. He was so congenial for six years no one, not even his boss, had directly told him the depth of their frustration.   When Geoff's former boss moved to a new assignment, his new boss was immediately inundated with complaints about his unreliability. So, in his next review, she told him his performance was unacceptable and put him on a performance improvement plan. In spite of Geoff's initial effort, his improvement over time was spotty. So, at the end of 2007, his manager placed him on probation and told him he had one year to improve or he was out. In 2008, as worldwide unemployment soared, Geoff was shown the door.   Behaviors That Drive Career Success   According to cumulative VitalSmarts research, as tragic as Geoff's story is, employees' inability to change following poor reviews is commonplace. However, analyzing data on top performers to determine what they do differently to make them stand above the rest revealed there is a small set of employees who know how to take input from their managers and turn it into career success. These employees know the necessary behaviors to keep their careers on course and how to encourage themselves to execute on those behaviors.   During the past two decades, VitalSmarts studied the most influential and respected employees in more than 50 companies and dozens of industries. Using an opinion-leader methodology, managers and employees were asked to identify the top three "go to" people in their organization. This data produced a power curve, where approximately half of the people in the workforce weren't named by anyone, but about 8 percent were named by as many as half of their peers. The researchers then observed the behaviors of these top performers, looked for actions they took that resulted in their success, and identified behaviors they had in common.   The top performers consistently demonstrated the following:   1. They know their stuff. Top performers put regular effort into ensuring they are good at the technical aspects of their jobs. They work hard at honing their craft.   2. They focus on the right stuff. In addition to performing their craft well, top performers contribute to tasks that are essential to the organization's success. Top performers work on their skill set and access to critical tasks the company values.   3. They build a reputation for being helpful. Top employees are widely known and respected by others not because of their frequent contact, charm or likability, but because they help others solve their problems.   Employees performing below their potential can become highly valued employees by tailoring these three behaviors to their career circumstances. Learning leaders should encourage employees to measure themselves against these behaviors and meet with their managers to discuss which behaviors will help them contribute.   Consider Melanie, a hard-working tax accountant who believed she was one of the smartest people on her team. Six years into her career she was passed over for a key assignment for the second time. She measured herself against the behaviors of top performers by conducting informal interviews with her manager and co-workers and discovered the following:   1. She no longer "knew her stuff" well enough. She needed to skill up on tax law.   2. She hadn't been working on the right stuff. She needed to boost her billable hours.   3. She wasn't viewed as being helpful on tough jobs because she had never been assigned to a major account. She needed to prove herself with a demanding client.   Once employees identify specific behaviors, as Melanie did, learning leaders can help influence behavioral change by aiding their employees in creating and implementing tailored performance improvement plans patterned after the strategies top performers use to drive behavior change.   How to Influence Change   The next step of VitalSmarts' research was to uncover how top performers adopt the right behaviors. The most important discovery was that they don't rely on willpower alone. Rather, they step back and create influence strategies to keep themselves on course. They act as both scientist and subject by designing their personal, social and structural environments to support these behaviors.   These encouraging and enabling influences can be grouped into six discrete sources. Below are examples of how learning leaders can help underachieving employees develop a change plan targeting each one.   1. Personal motivation. Help employees flash forward to their future. The best motivation is to help employees visit their default future - the life they'll have if they are repeatedly passed up for promotion. Help them visualize the money they'll lose and opportunities they'll miss. Specifically, VitalSmarts' research shows if a 30-year-old employee earning $60,000 is passed up for a promotion with a 2 percent raise, they'll incur a loss of $59,780 over their career.   2. Personal ability. Invest in professional development. New habits always require new skills. Help employees develop the skills they'll need to be viewed as a top performer through training, workshops or books that focus on the behaviors they are working to develop. Then encourage them to apply their new skills and seek feedback from an expert. This expert could be a peer on their team who embodies the skills they are working to develop.   3. Social motivation. Encourage employees to hang with the hard workers. The bad attitudes and habits that hold people back are likely enabled, tolerated or encouraged by others. Encourage struggling employees to associate with hard-working colleagues who share similar career goals and to distance themselves from slackers and water cooler conversations.   4. Social ability. Match employees with a mentor. Changing habits requires help. Help struggling employees find a mentor who will encourage their progression and navigate career development opportunities within the organization.   5. Structural motivation. Help employees put skin in the game. Reward employees for reaching short-term goals by placing money at risk. For example, tie small bonuses, rewards or incentives to their ability to meet their goals in time for their next performance review.   6. Structural ability. Help employees control their workspace. Make employees' new habits easier by boosting the power of their surroundings. If they'd benefit from close association with another team, relocate their office space.   VitalSmarts' How to Have Influence study, published in 2008 by MIT Sloan Management Review, shows that employees who focus on just a few behaviors and then use all six sources of influence in combination increase their chances of success tenfold.   In contrast to many behavior change research studies that show modest differences of 10 to 20 percent when using various interventions, when a behavior change strategy is informed by good science, the differences in effectiveness are not incremental, they are exponential. Learning leaders have the ability to encourage and enable lasting behavior change by spreading these strategies across the workforce. This can be done by creating a performance improvement plan composed of the following steps.   a) Have employees who receive a poor performance review measure themselves against the three common behaviors from top performers and tailor the behaviors to their specific career circumstances.   b) Ask employees to meet with their managers and co-workers to discover where they are lacking and what development or behaviors they need to be seen as a top performer.   c) Once employees have finalized the behaviors they will improve, have them create tactics within each of the six sources to drive behavior change.   d) Finally, leaders can work with employees to ensure they create a six-source change plan and help them implement tactics as needed.   As learning leaders help struggling employees focus on top performers' behaviors and build robust change plans, employees' engagement, success and productivity will increase dramatically.    -For more Articles and Information:  http://www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

The Upside-Down Pyramid(by Ken Blanchard | Chief Learning Officer)

-By Development Network-   Leaders in today's organizations continuously need to balance expectations from shareholders, customers and employees. How these three groups are ranked largely will determine an organization's culture. For instance, a shareholder-first organization focused on short-term profits will have a different culture than one that puts its employees first or that focuses on long-term business results and customer satisfaction.   Chief learning officers should determine who is their No. 1 customer or target audience, and then identify how that person or group impacts the organization's return on learning and development investments, service levels and employee engagement levels within the company. Several companies are adopting an employee-first approach that delivers results in all three areas.   At Southwest Airlines, putting employees first has been a rule since the airline's beginnings 40 years ago. The results have been impressive. In an industry notorious for losing money, Southwest has generated a profit for 38 consecutive years. "It sounded like heresy when we first said it, but we don't make any bones about it," said Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest. "Our pyramid is upside down from most companies. We clearly and proudly proclaim that our employees are our first customer in terms of priority, our passengers are our second customer and our shareholders are our third customer."   The same is true at Fortune 500 IT services company HCL Technologies, where CEO Vineet Nayar said, "Today's hierarchical pyramid isn't equipped to tackle tomorrow's challenges. Instead, we need organizations where trust, based on transparency, creates a culture of constant innovation; where managers are as accountable to their employees as employees are to their bosses."   In both of these organizations and in dozens more like them in different industries - such as Chick-fil-A in quick service restaurants, Wegman's in grocery, Synovus in financial services, WD-40 in manufacturing, Nordstrom's in retail and Ritz-Carlton in hospitality and lodging - leaders put their employees first to drive innovation at the bottom of the pyramid.   Leaders in these organizations are expected to turn the traditional pyramid upside down so the customer-contact people are at the top of the organization's concerns. In this scenario, leaders need to understand that part of their job is to take care of the people who take care of their customers. In other words, leaders work for the people who report to them. A lot of leaders don't see it this way, but this mindset is vital to empower people to serve customers at a high level. Elements of this mindset create a high-investment, high-expectation environment that supports an engaging environment for employees who in turn deliver superior experiences for customers:   1. Start with leaders. These organizations know they have to set the example. Leaders have to walk the talk because employees model the behavior they see. "You have to have a 100 percent commitment from everyone that you are going to do this together and you are going to hold each other accountable," Barrett said.   Garry Ridge, CEO of household-products manufacturer WD-40, goes so far as to remind managers of their mutual accountability to employees at performance review meetings. If a manager recommends that a person be let go - or "shared with the competition," as WD-40 calls it - the first question asked of the manager is: "What have you done to help your direct report succeed?" If the manager can't show he or she has coached and supported the direct report, the manager - not the direct report - might be shared with the competition.   This approach to mutual accountability gives leaders permission to step in when tough love is called for. "We are very clear in telling our people what our expectations are," Barrett said. "We hold them and ourselves accountable for meeting those expectations every day. Sometimes this means having a real heart-to-heart with people and reminding them what your values are. If you have been intentional and firm in explaining what your expectations are, that gives you the opportunity to point to specific examples where they haven't exhibited the required behaviors."   2. Empower employees. Leaders need to be supportive and directive at the same time. When people know leadership not only expects the best from them, but also will back them up with the tools, resources and training they need, they feel comfortable and prepared to make decisions on their own.   "A lot of leaders use the word empowerment too often," Barrett said. "They say they empower their people, but they really don't - they've got so many rules and procedures and all. But at Southwest, we make it clear to our employees at every level that they are empowered when it come to customer-service decisions."   That's the beauty of the system originally established by Nordstrom. For many years, new employees were given a copy of the famous Nordstrom Employee Handbook - a single 5-by-8-inch card containing 75 words:   "Welcome to Nordstrom. We're glad to have you with our company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules. Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time."   Ritz-Carlton Hotels is another organization that focuses on employee empowerment. Its motto, "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen," represents more than just words. In fact, during the reign of co-founder Horst Schulze, every employee was given a $2,000 discretionary fund he or she could use to solve a customer problem without checking with anyone. The hotel treats its employees right but also expects the respect and caring to be mutual.   3. Become a caring and candid organization. When employees are trained, empowered and also know the organization will back them up when they make decisions, wonderful things can happen. For example, recently a story circulated at Southwest when a pilot personally held an airplane for 12 minutes to wait for a grandfather to make the flight. This was a big decision for the pilot because on-time performance is the be-all, end-all in the airlines business. All airlines, including Southwest, teach their employees to not hold a plane for anyone. When it is time to go, it's time to go because if the plane is not on time, all the down-line cities are affected and it can harm the company's reputation.   In this situation, the employee closing the door on the airplane, the ticket agent getting people on the plane, the flight attendant who makes sure everyone is seated and everything is stored properly, and the captain of the aircraft all know the plane must leave on time. But all of these people decided to make an exception when an online reservation agent got a call from a grandfather asking for help. The man was away from home in an unfamiliar city when he learned his grandson was dying and only had a couple of hours to live. The grandfather was desperately trying to be there.   "Without any managerial intervention, our online reservation agent directs the grandfather to head to the airport while she starts working to clear obstacles from her end," Barrett said. "She calls the ground ops station at the local airport, gets hold of a ticket agent, explains what the situation is and works together with the ticket agent to have a ticket, boarding pass and someone prepared to walk the grandfather through security. Then the ticket agent buys the grandfather a ticket out of her own pocket and goes to the TSA checkpoint and tells them that she will be escorting a passenger that has to make a flight. She then contacts the gate and explains the situation. The gate attendant, in turn, notifies the captain on the flight.   "When it's time to push back, the pilot asks the ticket agent how close the grandfather is to arriving. He finds out that the grandfather is still about 10 minutes away. The captain thinks about it for a moment, gets out of the cockpit, goes to the front of the airplane and explains the situation to the passengers. He says, 'We are going to wait for this gentleman. I think it is the right thing to do.' After listening to the captain's explanation for the delay, the passengers break into applause. When the grandfather arrives 10 minutes later, he cannot believe that the captain has held the plane for him. The captain's response is, 'Sir, this airplane wasn't going anyplace without me - and I wasn't going anyplace without you.'"   4. Create a win, win, win. If leaders do things that make sense and show they care about their employees, employees will care about customers and about the company being financially sound. It's a win, win, win. It is the only way to get great performance and great employee satisfaction at the same time.   Servant leaders are constantly trying to find out what their people need to perform well and live according to their organization's vision. Rather than wanting people to please their bosses, servant leaders want to make a difference in their employees' lives and in their organizations. In top organizations, leaders believe if they do a good job serving their employees and showing they truly care about them, the employees will, in turn, practice that same philosophy with customers.   The process begins with leaders asking themselves one important question: Am I here to serve, or to be served? If the answer is that they are here to serve, the next step is to align policies and practices so they are taking care of the people who are taking care of customers. This is a high-investment approach to talent management that is designed to bring out the best in everyone.   -For more articles and Information: http:www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

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