Behavior Coaching in the Workplace -an explanation

Rather than concentrating of what leaders are, as the traditional trait approach urges, today's behavioral approach has enabled us to look at what people do.

Personality traits and leadership traits are difficult to measure. How can we measure traits such as honesty, integrity, loyalty, or diligence? To measure traits, researchers relied on constructs which lacked reliability and, given differing definitions, also lacked validity. Today, researchers have turned to an examination of leader behaviors. With behaviors, researchers could rely on empirical evidence. Behaviors, contrary to traits, can be observed, assessed and measured.

Behavior = A person's actions -which are controlled by the sum of their thinking, beliefs and feelings about specific ideas, situations, or other people. The three primary types of organizational behavior are: Leadership Behavior, InterGroup Behavior and Political Behavior.

All learning leads to nothing when people don’t change their thoughts and actions (read: behavior). 21st Century, professional coaching is an integrative approach founded on the behavioral sciences. Today, a coaching model must encapsulate personal development, beliefs, values, attitudes, emotions, motivation levels and adult and social learning, as well as personal and organizational dynamics and defenses.

Principles of behavior based coaching ('behavior' derived from the term 'behavioral' sciences and not the limiting theory of behaviorism or behavioral psychology) have developed over recent years from the fields of evidence based psychology and validated and proven organizational change principles (See: 'Behavioral Coaching' by Zeus and Skiffington).

Variables in Behavior Change
Thoughts and ideas inside a person’s mind have significant influence on an individual’s behaviors. These variables interact with social and environmental factors and it is the synergy among all these influences that operate on behavior.

Elements affecting Behavior
    -Knowledge: Facts, truth, or principles gained by sight, experience, or report.
    -Skills : The ability to do something well, arising from talent, training/coaching, or practice.
    -Belief : Acceptance of or confidence in an alleged fact or body of facts as true or right without positive knowledge or proof; a perceived
                 truth. Previous experiences and mood impact our beliefs because they are based partly on emotion.
    -Attitude: Manner, disposition, feeling, or position toward a person or thing.
    -Values: Ideas, ideals, customs that arouse an emotional response for or against them

Coaching at Work: Generally the reasons for seeking out a coach are linked to the desire for change at one or more of three levels. For example, there may be issues around:

Intrapersonal skills– e.g. a desire to become more effective at time-management
Interpersonal skills– e.g. a desire to develop more productive relationships with fellow workers
Organizational skills– e.g. a need to develop a more strategic approach to organizational policy

By positively changing an individual's behavior at any one of the above levels the organization as a whole will benefit as the individual increases his or her effectiveness.

Behaviors are learned and can be "unlearned"- Behavior is not a person's innate Personality:
-The temptation to attribute the cause of performance problems solely to personal style and individual motivation issues.
It is vital that today's leaders/managers understand the difference between trying to change someone’s personality and trying to change someone’s behavior. Unfortunately, most managers make no distinction. Leaders/managers typically believe that the root cause of most employees’ performance problems is related to who they are (their personality) rather than what they do (their behavior.) They often communicate a belief -often indirectly and unintentionally -that performance problems are related to personality issues. A common solution is to encourage the employee to change themselves through some personality type profiling change program. This not only doesn’t work but communicates blame to the employee's personality.

Defining Behavior = Better Performance:
Behavior-based coaching provides a better, proven framework for looking at the root causes of behavior, one that starts with a clear definition of behavior. The ability to describe behavior (personal skills) in objective, observable terms is an important performance tool for leaders/managers. Describing behavior in observable terms helps managers to balance their focus on process and outcomes. Leaders/managers also need to understand the effects of their behavior on themselves and others.

Describing behavior makes finding a solution easier whereas focusing on personality issues invariably makes the task very difficult:
By objectively discussing behavior, leaders/managers also keep work-related discussions in a constructive problem-solving mode that is less likely to make employees defensive. Objectively discussing behavioral concerns is so much easier than trying to change an employee’s personality or motivation. Furthermore, discussing objective behavior makes effective communication easier. When discussing internal attributes, such as personality, different people have different interpretations of the terms being used. Objectively describing behavior helps keep everyone on the same page and lowers the risk of miscommunication.

For example; a senior manager of a large firm, for years had received critical descriptions of himself as a controlling micromanager. In the past, he wasn't really shown how to address the problem because words such as controlling made statements to him about his personality. Recently however, he begun working with a coach who took a behavior-based approach about helping him change his actions rather than his so-called personality. As such, he was provided the requisite behavioral tools to help change his thinking and verbal behavior. Within a short time, the entire organizational environment around him changed. People felt they could actually do their jobs without getting approval for every single move and…more things were getting done. The change in his behavior had changed his life for the better and that of everyone around him.

The Need for Behavioral based Coaching:
-Traditional deployment of outdated coaching skills training initiatives fail to produce sustainable change in behaviors.
Today's organizational goal is to utilize a professional development change program that changes behaviors and enhances performance so that business objectives are achieved. Many coaches are failing this challenge to positively impact an employee's individual perceptions, self awareness and relationship management, and ways of approaching people, problems and situations differently than in the past.

Behavioral competencies:
Too often in organizations people are hired or promoted for their technical expertise and fail because of their behavioral competencies. Behavioral competencies are not innate talents, but learned abilities, each of which has a unique contribution to making leaders more resilient, and therefore more effective. Behavioral competencies control the leader's/manager's ability to perform, get along with others, adapt to changing situations, and other issues.