How often have you made goals, promised yourself you’ll do something or given into the fad of ‘new year's resolutions’? We’re all guilty of it. We promise ourselves we’ll ‘be healthier’, ‘work harder’ or ‘be a better person’, but are broad resolutions like these enough to effect behavior change? It’s not difficult to find habits we want to build or break; the difficult part is putting in the necessary work which will enable us to reach these goals. When we look at senior management, we know they have major goals for their businesses and implement targets to their teams. If they can implement a shift in thinking and alter their teams’ behaviors, there is no limit to what can be achieved. They of course must practice what they preach and hope their teams will be able to follow suit. According to psychologists who have been studying behavior change and our inability to make big changes, here are five of the key reasons why personal behavior change typically fails:
2. It’s all or nothing. Wrong. It can be in the middle. Don’t rely on a sudden burst of motivation to fuel your achieving all of your goals. And don’t give up as soon as you hit a bump in the road. Effecting behavior change sounds daunting - like it has to be done immediately, but does it? No. Work toward changing your behavior and it will come, it’s a process. 3. We’re too hard on ourselves. Here’s an example I'm sure many people will be able to relate to. You’re on a diet and you have a hiccup and have that delicious chocolate cake you’ve been eyeing up from across the room. Nothing wrong with that at all. But then you think ‘well I’ve already messed up for the day, so i might as well have that second slice’, and so it spirals out of control until you feel so guilty that you decided to bin the diet and start again ‘tomorrow’. It’s okay to have lapses. It’s okay to fail. Allow yourself to fail, but make sure don’t give up, but put in the extra work to offset that failure. Failure is part of the process, embrace it! 4. We don’t commit. There are lots of differing opinions on whether you should share your goals with others or not. One the one hand, sharing with others holds you accountable to follow through with your intentions and change your actions, as well as gaining support from those you’ve told. On the other hand, talking about your goals to others too much can confuse your brain with actually working towards it and achieving towards it. Going public also increases the likelihood of celebrating success prematurely. Though we should celebrate the significant little wins, it’s also important to focus on making daily progress. 5. We’re fueled by negativity. Behavior change should be implemented with a positive outlook. People often think that negative emotions (regret, for example) would inspire and motivate change, but it’s actually the opposite. In order to behavior change to be effective, it needs to be triggered by positive emotions and thoughts. Rather than focusing on what you don’t like and the thing you want to change, focus on what you would like to change it to, and frame it positively.  Commitment Devices When trying to change behaviors, one effective method is to use a commitment device; a way to lock yourself into behavior change by associating your actions with rewards or punishments. For example, every time you achieve your little goals when working toward your bigger end goal, reward yourself with something that will incentivize you to keep pushing yourself. And when you don’t hit your goals, predetermine the consequences (i.e. blocking all social media sites on your phone for the rest of the day). Celebrate the little wins, but also make sure you deal with the consequences when you don’t hit your goals. Let’s talk about the stages of behavior change. Stage 1: Pre-contemplation. This is the earliest stage, during which people aren’t actively considering a change. In this stage, you may feel resigned to your current state or believe you have no control over your behavior. In this stage, characteristics include: denial and ignorance of the problem. Stage 2: Contemplation. During this stage, people become more aware of the potential benefits of making a change, but they also focus on the dis-benefits and costs, making them conflicted in actually making a change. In this stage, characteristics include: ambivalence and conflicted emotions. Stage 3: Preparation. This is where you unlock the most potential to make your behavior change goal into a reality. You might begin with making small changes, gather as much information as possible about how to change your behavior and write down your goals. This is also where you confide in others about your goals, in an effort to seek advice and encouragement. In this stage, characteristics include: experimenting with small changes and collecting information about changes. Stage 4: Action. The fourth stage is where direct action toward a goal usually takes place. Often New Year’s Resolutions fail because the steps before ‘action’ have likely been overlooked. The stages leading up to this fourth stage are just as important as taking action. Stage 5: Maintenance. The maintenance phase of this model involves successfully keeping up with new behaviors while avoiding past behaviors. During this stage, people are more confident that they will be able to continue their change. When in this stage, try and replace old habits with more positive actions, and make sure to reward yourself when you successfully avoid a relapse. But remember the earlier point about being forgiving if you do relapse and hit a setback, which leads nicely onto the last stage of the model… Stage 6: Relapse. In any behavior change, relapses are common. But rather than allowing feelings of failure and frustration take over, use the relapses to push yourself to do better. Investigate what caused the relapse, and how you can avoid another one in the future. If you do relapse, you might want to reassess your techniques, reaffirm your motivation and plan of action. Behavioral Change in the workplace Now that we have nailed down behavior change, let’s take a look at how we can implement behavior change in the workplace. As a manager, you must be able to facilitate behavioral changes when you notice behaviors among your employees which need changing. It’s easy to sit back and do nothing, but if you want to be a good manager and for your employees to have a positive impact on the company, you need to take action before these unwanted behaviors harm morale, jeopardize productivity and may even cause you to lose clients. In a corporate environment, there are five ways to facilitate behavioral changes.
2. Be a coach. As a manager, giving up your time to coach your employees will make your employees feel encouraged, supported, valued and that management is invested into their success as individuals. Coaching is an ongoing process that involves providing consistent feedback, which is useful in changing behaviors. Coaching is a good way of helping to implement behavioral changes, but also helping employees move their career forward, which will increase productivity and output. 3. One issue at a time. Don’t try and change everything all at once. Focus on one behavior change at a time, so as not to ask too much from your employees. Work slowly, but consistently if you want to see effective behavior change. Identify one behavior that you’d like altered, and work on that first. As behavioral change theories state that there are a variety of stages associated with a change, which we have just seen, it is important that your employees have ample time to go through each stage to make sure that any changes become permanent ones. Prioritize the behavior changes you want to see in your employees, and work on them one at a time. 4. Create collective goals. Often, implementing behavior change is best done when working with a whole team, rather than an individual. Having clear goals set for the whole workforce will guide your employees to change their behaviors and will make them all work towards the same objective. Change initiatives are most successful when everyone is fixed on the same end goal. As part of this, you could hold group training sessions or meetings to reinforce the objectives and behaviors you want to see changed. This can be a safe space for your employees to inspire and encourage each other toward this positive change. 5. Reward positive behaviors. When you reward your employees, you reinforce positive behaviors. Employees like to feel appreciated and recognized. It doesn’t need to be a huge reward, just the act of rewarding and acknowledging positive behaviors is hugely beneficial. Likewise, when an undesirable behavior crops up, you need to provide immediate, constructive and direct feedback so that your employee realizes it is unacceptable. All confrontations with these behaviors must be fair and sensitive. Always ensure that your actions are doing more good than harm, and focused on harnessing relationships, creating trust and boosting morale. Any major change is not easy to make and stick to. In corporate environments, behavior change is even more challenging because there are many people involved, so changes need to be managed fairly, sensibly and positively. Behavioral change in a company is extremely important to boost morale and uplift the company culture. If your employees are happier as a result of more positive behaviors, then they are likely to be more productive and therefore deliver increased or improved output. Sources Social cognition theory http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories_print.html 6 stages of behaviour change https://www.verywellmind.com/the-stages-of-change-2794868 |
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