BEHAVIOR VS ATTITUDEWhen you manage the performance of your direct reports, do you focus on behavior or do you focus on attitude? Or on both?A behavior is observable, measurable, and specific. An attitude is an interpretation of a behavior. If you ask 10 people to describe to you a behavior, all of them will give you exactly the very same answer – for example: “she arrived at 8:14 am on Monday, she arrived at 8:28 on Tuesday, etc.” – this is objectivity. But if you ask them to describe to you an attitude, you will get 10 different answers – for example: “she is a lazy person,” or, “she is an unreliable worker,” etc., – this is subjectivity. In other words, if you focus on your employees’ attitude when you manage their performance, you are being subjective – and subjectivity is useless (not to mention misleading) in performance management. But when you only focus on your employees’ behavior, you are being objective. Remember: By definition, performance is the sum of behaviors plus results. If you want to effectively manage the performance of your direct reports, you must focus ONLY on behavior – and you must erase from your vocabulary the word / concept Attitude. Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I’d love to here from you, just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think. See you next month! |
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