The Secret To Changing Other’s Behaviour

Greetings!

September is the herald of Spring in the Antipodes and the beginning of Autumn (or Fall) in the Northern Hemisphere.

Polar opposites they are. People can also be polar opposites in behavioural style.

How do you move to change someone who is the opposite of you in behavioural style? It’s certainly not by telling them, but by artfully and tactfully pointing out that they might not be able to obtain their goals if they do not take into consideration other factors.

We take a look at how to do this in this month’s review.

Have a great September!

Many of you will be familiar with the very well known and popular DiSC Behavioural Profile in which there are 4 preferred styles of behaviour selected by people’s perception of the environment (friendly or unfriendly) and their perception of their personal power (self-confidence, self-esteem) in that environment.Leaders and managers who want to change the behaviour of their team members towards more productive and positive behaviour to meet goals need to focus their team’s preferred styles to change their behaviour towards preferred outcomes.

Many leaders who come from a domination attitudefail to see that to change behaviour, they must first consider the focus and preferences of their members.

For example, if you are fishing for rainbow trout, you will need a different bait, and perhaps a different hook. When you are fishing for deep sea barramundi fish, you will need different bait and definitely a different hook.

In other words, you need to use the right hook for change and bait it correctly for the right focus of the members so that they will be enticed into making the change by themselves.

Driver (D) and Expressive (I) (Dominance and Influent) types are big picture, future-focused, and tend to look up at the mountain top and not see the path directly underfoot.

Amiable (S) and Compliant (C) (Steadiness and Conscientiousness) types tent to be present focused. They look down at the ground where they take it step by step and tend not to look at their ultimate destination or big picture.

Leaders will be more effective in making change when they understand that they need to help their team member understand why the team member’s focus can be obstacles in their getting of goals.

For D or I team members, help them to understand that their predominantly future focus will prevent them from reaching their goals if they do not look at getting their short term steps right.

For example, in a sales situation, it could be that doubling revenue will not be possible by present behaviour of not networking and prospecting enough to fill the sales pipeline.

For S or C team members, help them to understand that their present focus will affect their future focus. In other words focusing on their next steps is great, but if they don’t look up at the distant mountain tops, and be guided by the vision and mission, they could more likely end up way off-course.

There are no good or bad behavioural preferences. We are as we are, and we all have our perceptions of environment and preferred behaviours.

Sticking closely to our preferred behavioural patterns causes us less stress and less mental burn. Conversely, having to adapt our behaviour to gain rapport with others who prefer a different behavioural pattern can and will burn more calories and cause mental stress.

But the more we can adapt to the other’s behavioural preferences, we are more likely able to influence them. Like people like people, the saying goes. It’s true. Just like the saying, birds of a feather flock together.

If the majority of the time you are spending it in only one quadrant of behaviour, it will mean that you do not adapt well to other people and the environment. And that means your influence will be low.

However, if you are adaptable in your behaviour, you will be able to gain rapport faster, influence with more ease, and get more people to do see the greater good and go after their goals much more clearly.

From my own experience, whenever I am consciously aware of the other’s preferred behavioural pattern and I consciously adapt my behaviour to meet them on their side of the behavioural fence, I am able to gain rapport and their trust much more rapidly. It goes without saying that I must be sincere about why I am doing this.

How about you? What do you do to become a change master and influence your team’s behaviour towards shared vision and goals? Do you tell them or ask and show them the way?

What are your thoughts on this?