The Little Engine That Could
When I say that changes in behavior follow changes in beliefs, at first blush you may think that this is obvious. However, I suspect you may be able to recall instances in your own life when you attempted to change your behavior without changing your beliefs. For example, perhaps you didn't believe that you could ski, but took ski lessons anyway. Surprise - you didn't learn to ski! Your belief became a self-fulfilling prophesy.
In her article, Leadership Beliefs Are The Initial Gap, Leanne Hoagland-Smith observes that beliefs determine behaviors. She cites examples of companies who attempt to change prejudices through diversity training. Unless underlying attitudes and beliefs actually change, behavior will not change.
So in practical terms, how does this work for an organization? For example, if the plan is that the company will grow by 10% and some, if not all, of the sales staff within the department has a belief that this is a ridiculous expectation due to their experiences within the market arena, this belief will drive the attitudes demonstrated through specific behaviors. These behaviors may range from negative and highly sensitive to any directions to poor work ethic. The outcome of these behaviors might be the failure to meet sales’ goals which then creates a gap between the vision and the results.
What further happens is that since beliefs are in many cases subconscious, individuals now lose control over the outcomes of their behaviors. They believe that they are doing everything necessary to meet the sales goals, but in actuality, they are as the old expression goes "shooting themselves in their feet." These beliefs must be clearly identified and acknowledged before the gap can begin to close. In many cases, this may not happen because of other factors such as fear or an unacknowledged poor self-image.
To read the entire article:
Leadership Beliefs Are The Initial Gap
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