2016 - Page 3 of 7 - Optimus Performance

Writing a Goal Statement to Change a Behaviour & Habit

Aug 29, 2016 Comments

To change a behaviour requires being acutely aware and conscious of oneself as behaviours are linked to deep rooted beliefs, attitudes and habitual thinking. The type of person we are fuels these behaviours that can sometimes be perceived as negative by others.

In my previous article and video in this series I used the example of the classic type of person whose main motivation is accomplishment and whose fear is ineffectiveness. In fact, this is my type so I am using myself as an example in the goal setting process.

To make this practical for you I have made available a goal planning form that you can download here. To identify your type, I suggest buying the book CrazYZoo! Know-Thyself Made Easy by Fritz Glaus as he walks you through the six classic types and provides an exercise for you to discover your type.

Whether you use the type approach or just choose a behaviour you want to change, the process is the same.

Step One: Tendency or Behaviour

The first step is to write down the tendency or behaviour to change. In my case it is impatience and controlling. When I feel things are not being done effectively I tend to become impatient and too controlling. On my goal planning sheet, I wrote down impatient and controlling. You can download the form and my example here.

Step Two: Describe Tendency or Behaviour to Change

Now write down the specific tendency or behavioural habit to change in more detail. In my case it is; Impatient and too controlling with people when things are not going fast enough or done the way I think it should be.

Step Three: Write Goal Statement

Write the goal statement following the S.M.A.R.T. principle (specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, time limit). My example is; When things are not going at the pace I like or being done the way I want, take a diplomatic and positive approach with the person or those responsible for the task and show patience and support.

Step Four: Outcome Measure

The outcome defines the expected change and how you will know if your goal has been achieved. My personal example is; I will practice patience and diplomacy 95% of the time when warranted and I will achieve this in 6 months. I wrote 95% of the time as I feel it is unrealistic to expect perfection.

It is extremely important to write down your goal. This makes for a stronger commitment and provides more clarity to visualize achieving the goal. It also makes follow-up and measurement very tangible.

In my next article and video, I will continue the goal setting example and cover the topics of benefits, follow-up, roadblocks, solutions and more.

Develop Better Habits to Improve Leadership and Personal Performance

Aug 15, 2016 Comments

To improve our performance, we need to change the habit that drives a particular behaviour. This is why change is so difficult as we all know how deeply ingrained habits are. Just try brushing your teeth with your opposite hand to know what I mean. It does not feel natural and we immediately want to go back to using the other hand as we can get the job done faster and easier.

In my last article and video, I talked about the tendency or fear according to our type that holds us back from being fully effective. I used the example of the type of person whose main motivation is accomplishment and whose fear is ineffectiveness. One of the negative tendencies of this type of person is to become impatient when the fear of ineffectiveness kicks in. The gut reaction of this type of person is to take charge and become somewhat controlling when things are not going as they see fit to accomplish a task or goal.

It seems simple that all this person needs to do is to become aware of this tendency and just be more patient and less controlling. But this is easier said than done because this tendency is deeply ingrained. Because it feels so natural attitudes get created that support the behaviour. For example, when this type of person feels they need to take charge they may do so in a forceful way that may seem aggressive to others. But their attitude may be that I just need to do this in order for things to be effective and others need to be told what needs to be done.

Change Process

The diagram below shows how attitude and beliefs drive behaviour, which creates habits and produces specific results. If the results are satisfactory to the person there is no reason to interrupt this process and try to change. Only negative results including negative feedback could cause the person to question their approach. But again they may justify it by thinking that everyone else must be wrong as they are doing the right thing.

So the change process must begin with awareness followed by choice and then action. This does take effort on three levels, intellectually, emotionally and physically.

Using our example, the leader being impatient and controlling, the first step is to acknowledge that this is a negative tendency at times because of the way it affects staff members. Choosing to do something about it means working out a plan and the goal to change the behaviour. Putting the goal in writing makes it a real commitment that can be tracked and measured. Writing down a goal is not simply charting it on a piece of paper and then forgetting about. There are several important steps involved in writing a goal and you can download my goal planning worksheet to get started. This is a new goal planning form I created for this process and will be used in subsequent blog articles and videos. It is related to the types of people approach developed by Fritz Glaus from his book CrazyZoo! Know-Thyself Made Easy.

Goal Planning for Change

One part of writing a goal to support taking action and changing a habit is affirmation and visualization. The other part is tracking progress to know if you are improving as this will motivate you to continue. Change usually comes in small steps so we need to recognize the improvements otherwise it’s easy to think you are not getting anywhere and just go back to old habits.

In my upcoming articles and videos, I will go more into detail on the specifics of writing a goal for behavioural change and to set a supporting affirmation and visualization technique.

Changing Behaviour to Become a Better Leader

Aug 01, 2016 Comments

The hardest part of becoming a better leader is changing behaviour to implement best leadership practices that we read about or learn in leadership training programs.

Change in behaviour begins with better understanding of oneself and others. Without self-knowledge we cannot effectively implement new skills in leadership and team development, nor can we build trust and effective relationships.

For example, the leadership skill of delegation is essential for leaders to master in order to grow their departments and develop people in their roles.

Know Yourself, Know Your Type

A leader who is a type motivated by accomplishment would need to understand that their restrainer to personal performance as a leader is ineffectiveness. We call this a key fear. Because this type of person or leader fears ineffectiveness, when things aren’t going quick enough towards accomplishing projects and goals they can easily become impatient. If the person they are delegating to is an emotional dominant type and thus more sensitive, the impatience of the leader might cause them to become stressed and afraid of failing.

Another type of leader who is dominated by intellect and motived by truth might approach delegation differently. Because their fear is mental confusion, they might tend to over explain things and cause the team member to become confused.

Work on Controlling Your Key Fear

When learning the skill of delegation in a training program each person learns the same techniques. I have covered these techniques in pervious articles and videos and this information is easily found in books on leadership.

However, without understanding your type and your main motivation and fear, it becomes more difficult to apply the skill of delegation because to do so requires a change in your behaviour. The restrainer being your fear combined with the principle of habit will make it very difficult to effectuate change.

Set a Personal Goal

Once you learn your type and identify your fear or restrainer, you can use goal setting to help you become more conscious of your tendencies related to your fear and minimize the frequency of the tendency such as in the example of impatience. By setting a goal to become more patient when delegating work, this type of leader would be better able to apply the skills of delegation and also build trust and a better relationship with their direct reports.

Learn about Yourself

To learn about your type, I recommend the book CrazYZoo! Know-Thyself Made Easy by Fritz Glaus in which he tells a story using animals to represent each of the six classic types. Through the story Fritz also has you choose your type and learn how to use this knowledge for personal development and to coach others.

Solve Strategic Problems by Using All your Personal Resources

Jul 19, 2016 Comments

We are often faced with problems that have an important impact on our work and lives. They always involve making an important decision and are more complex than solving simple everyday problems.

Sometimes these problems can cause us to freeze and do nothing and even become confused or defocused.

Define Problem or Goal

However, we are all built to succeed and possess the resources required to achieve our goals. So the first step is to become clear on what the goal or clarify the problem.

For example, if one of my leading products or services is becoming commoditized in the marketplace then the goal might be to develop a new product or service. Or the problem definition could be to find a solution to the commoditising of the product or service.

Use Your Three Brains

Next is to use your three brains or intelligences to come up with solutions for your problem or goal. These are your intellectual centre, your emotional centre and your instinctive or physical centre of intelligence. The key is not to overuse any of them but to balance all three in working out the best solution to your problem.

In his book CrazYZoo! Know Thyself Made Easy, Fritz Clouse explains the three intelligences and goes much deeper by guiding the reader in choosing their classic and combined types. This gives a deep understanding of yourself and how to leverage your strengths and control your weakness.

Use your intellectual intelligence to logically analyse the problem in order to find the cause or evaluate the pros and cons of the possible solutions.

Use your emotional intelligence to see how you feel about implementing possible solutions. Imagine the solution happening and see how it feels.

Use your instinctive or physical intelligence to allow ideas to come to you that your mind may not have thought of when trying to figure it out.

When faced with these types of strategic problems I like to first get clear on the impact of the problem and why I need to solve it. I then stop dwelling on it and instead start focusing on what it would be like if the problem was solved.

I find that when I engage in some physical activity like running or cycling new ideas start flowing to me to address the problem. Our instinctive intelligence is very powerful and will deliver ideas and solutions that our logical mind will never think of as it is more limited by our self-imposed concepts and ideas.

Visualize a Solution

One powerful technique is to use visualization that can also be combined with positive affirmation to train both are conscious and subconscious minds to provide actionable solutions. This technique makes good use of the three intelligences. As you think of the problem or goal visualize it in your mind while tapping into your emotions. You can do this by recalling a past experience where you felt success in your life.

Give Yourself Time

In order for visualization and affirmation techniques to be effective it must be done every day for 30 days. I will cover this in more detail future articles and videos so subscribe now if you haven’t already.

Because I am referring to key strategic problems that will have a major impact on you or your business it is important to allow adequate time to work on these problems. If you rush you will not allow yourself to use your three intelligences adequately.

I hope this gives you some greater insight into using all your resources to address a strategic problem or goal. The main take away is to learn to use all your centres of intelligence to guide you to solving important problems and achieving key goals.

Yearly Archives: 2016