Autonomy
Another driver of human behavior is autonomy. Those who are driven by autonomy like to feel they are in control and in charge. Generally they don’t like to be told what to do or how to do it. If you’ve ever been micromanaged, you’ve experienced reduced autonomy.
Leaders who want to support their employees’ need for autonomy must give them the freedom to make choices, especially when they are part of a team or working with a supervisor. Presenting people with options, or allowing them to organize their own work and set their own hours, creates… Continue reading
Certainty
We’re continuing to explore the five major drivers of human behavior. The brain is a pattern recognition machine that is constantly trying to predict the future. We crave certainty so that prediction is possible. Without prediction you’re using dramatically more resources to process moment-to-moment experience.
Small amounts of uncertainty generate an ‘error’ response in the brain taking attention away from your goals and forcing attention to the error. If someone is acting out of character or not telling you the whole truth this can create uncertainty and cause an error response. Until this is resolved,… Continue reading
Status
Status is about relative importance, “pecking order” and seniority. Think about a time when you’ve met someone you really admire and look up to. You may have built them up in your mind. When you meet them you may experience being tongue tied, not knowing what to say. Your brain shuts down a bit. This is what happens when your perceived status is lowered, a threat to your status.
It can be easy to accidentally threaten someone’s sense of status. It can occur when giving someone advice or instructions, or simply suggesting someone is… Continue reading
Your #1 Asset
I happened upon some interesting studies regarding how the brain reacts to different situations. In particular, about our capacity to make decisions, solve problems and collaborate with others. The information has a profound impact on the performance of a team. When individuals have a threat response, capacity to perform and reason diminishes and it is increased under a reward response.
Our brain is constantly evaluating whether a situation is a threat or a reward. In social settings (working with others) there are five areas of human experience: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. These… Continue reading
From Manager to Leader #3
This blog continues with the June theme of Leadership. See what you think and leave your comments below. Leadership skills can be developed at any stage in your career. Some people naturally possess these skills, others do not. Here are still more shifts to make when you’re aspiring to be a leader.
Shift 12: Minimize consequences to advantages. Many managers tend to hide, justify, color or reshape consequences such as bad news, dropping sales or business disruption. Leaders celebrate the consequences, learn from them and go make a whole lot more money because… Continue reading
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