"I'll Try" Is Not Good Enough ...

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Contents

Acknowledgments...............................................................................ixPreface.......................................................................................xiIntroduction..................................................................................xiiiPart One Why Change Is Difficult..............................................................1Chapter One Understanding Capacity............................................................3Chapter Two Awareness and Feedback Deficiencies...............................................7Chapter Three External Motivation.............................................................22Chapter Four Internal Motivation..............................................................30Chapter Five Lack of Education and Training...................................................38Part Two Facilitating Change..................................................................45Chapter Six Dealing With Capacity Issues......................................................47Chapter Seven Correcting Deficiencies in Awareness: Feedback Deficiencies.....................53Chapter Eight Creating External Motivation....................................................64Chapter Nine Altering Internal Motivation.....................................................70Chapter Ten Creating a Climate for Development................................................83Conclusion....................................................................................89Appendix......................................................................................92Advice on Utilizing Consultants...............................................................93Bibliography..................................................................................96About the Authors.............................................................................98

Chapter One

Principle 1: Some people may lack the innate capacity that is necessary to perform in their jobs most effectively.

LIMITED CAPACITY—After decades of experience in various professional fields, we've found that individuals may be missing the necessary capacity to achieve the desired change.

An individual is "hardwired" in a variety of ways by his or her genetic background. As a consequence, some of the behavior—which is genetically ingrained—is hard, if not impossible, to change. Ability and capacity are often confused. Ability can be defined as one's competence in performing a specific learned task, whereas capacity refers to the physical capability to perform and the mental acuity to follow through.

The individual may have the ability to perform a given task that he or she has learned, but it must follow in his or her innate capacity to do so.

The following are some areas where limited capacity may play a more important role:

• the capacity to analyze and solve complex problems

• sensitivity and empathy with regard to people

• the capacity to grasp more abstract, conceptual issues

• physical skills and abilities

• creativity and the ability to "think out of the box"

• a sense of time and its role in the workplace

• right brain (free-form/out-of-the-box thinking)/left brain (more sequential thinking)

• introversion/extroversion

According to research by the late Psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, it has been shown that these areas of capacity tend to vary according to a bell-shaped curve with the majority of people falling in the middle. This is depicted in the graph below.

As a manager, you should attempt to determine whether or not an individual has the innate capacity to succeed in the position by using an IQ test. Since, for the most part, capacity does not change, accurate assessments in this area may be critical when an individual is hired for a position or transferred to a new position. The higher the position, the greater the innate capacity an individual may need for success in the position. As you well know, many individuals from CEO down have failed, because they were promoted beyond the level of their capacity. If an individual truly lacks the capacity, one may not want to put out the effort to try to achieve change.

Deficiencies that appear to reflect lack of capacity, however, can and do frequently stem from other impediments to behavior change. It may be necessary to probe all of the other impediments to change before reaching a conclusion. For example, individuals may not believe that they have the capacity to succeed in a given area—when actually they do—and it is their limiting self-perception that is holding them back.

Summary

A person's capacity for learning and change will directly affect his or her performance on the job. Once you've determined capacity, it's time to explore a person's awareness of his or her behavior. We'll review that topic in the next chapter, "Awareness and Feedback Deficiencies."

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Chapter Two

Principle 2: Individuals cannot change behavior that limits their performance if they are unaware of this behavior and its consequences.

Limited awareness means that an individual doesn't recognize the need for change. An individual may have the capacity to change but may not be aware that change is necessary. A primary reason why individuals do not change is that they lack this personal awareness along with the specific information indicating why and/or what they need to change.

A good example of this is Mary L.

Mary was an engaging and intelligent young software salesperson who had everything going for her. She was organized, personable, knowledgeable, and generally competent. Yet, she was underachieving. She couldn't generate commissions. She wasn `t opening accounts. As her manager, the first day I called her, I knew part of the reason for her failure. She lacked assertiveness and seemed anxious on the phone. Her prospective clients might well have concluded that she lacked confidence and, in turn, decided not to do business with her. When questioned on this issue, it became totally apparent that Mary was unaware of her behavior and the impact it was having.

Accurate, ongoing feedback has long been identified as a necessary factor in producing behavior change. In Mary's case, lack of feedback was her main problem. Once she realized how she was being perceived by her prospective clients, it allowed her to formulate a plan to change her behavior and execute it. It worked wonders!

Humans need feedback to recognize how they are currently functioning and how they might function more effectively. Even without deficiencies, self-induced or otherwise, we are biologically handicapped. In order to not go into overload, our sensors allow us to perceive only a small portion of our total environment. For example, we can see...