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Behavioral Management may seem like a technical term, but it is truly the root to understanding all of your human performance needs within your organization. Leaders who understand the premise of behavioral management make the most appropriate hiring decisions, train the most efficiently and coach in the most effective ways to drive performance changes in their organizations.

So what is behavioral management?
It is the knowledge, communication and application of the desired behaviors within your organization that will enable the greatest success. How many of us have interviewed a candidate and thought she was a “great communicator” and “focused to the big picture”? Have you observed a training session and thought the trainer was “dynamic” and “engaging”? And have you ever coached an employee and found him to be “unresponsive to your coaching” or “disagreeable”? All of these words are perceptions rather than behaviors. This is the type of communication that hurts our ability to be consistent, impairs our effectiveness as a coach, and hinders our capacity to drive change in our organizations.

What are the greatest detriments to NOT being behaviorally managed?
When recruiters have different perceptions than your operations managers, applicants get hired who end up not meeting your organization’s needs. When trainers are not given the behavioral feedback to be perceived as “dynamic” and “engaged”, your new trainees exit training without the desired enthusiasm and passion for your company and your customers. When supervisors do not understand the desired behaviors that make them an effective coach, they will not facilitate the necessary changes in your employees. When employees are left to their own personal judgment and previous experience to know what “customer focused” and “good listening” mean, they will not be successful in achieving your goals. Your company is at risk when behavioral management is not your core business practice.

So where do we start to change things?
First, gain an understanding of how perception-driven your company is so that you see for yourself the impact that undefined perceptions are having on your bottom line. Start by reviewing last year’s performance reviews. Do you see words such as, “helpful”, “assertive communicator”, “good relationship-building skills” or “attentive?” These are words that are not helping you to promote the desired behaviors within your organization.

Once you have reviewed your performance evaluations, spend some time listening to your supervisors describe phone calls during a calibration session. Do you hear them use words like “good listener”, “friendly” or “helpful and supportive”? By hearing these descriptions, you will know that your supervisors are not coaching to specific behaviors. And if they are not coaching to the behaviors that create the perceptions of “rudeness”, “inattentiveness” and “frustration”, your employees will not be able to change their behaviors.

Once you identify how pervasive perceptions are within your organization, you will be able to associate results to the impact of these perceptions. Raise your level of awareness of the use of perceptions rather than behaviors, and you will realize the opportunities for transforming your organization to one that is behaviorally managed.

For more information on the process of leading a behavior-based initiative, please contact Kimberly King, President of InterWeave, at 813-933-4432 or kking@interweavecorp.com.