Facilitating behavioral change through a back door

I learned a variation of this approach from Jim Shanley, who was then the
head of Leadership Development for Bank of America.

Jim leveraged my communication expertise often because, as he put it,
“Peggy Noonan, who was President Reagan’s speech writer, once said nothing gets done in Washington without a speech. We create communication events and then coach leaders behind the scenes as to what it means to ‘walk the talk.’”
So I was his communication partner-in-crime for leadership development
opportunities.

I have adopted Jim’s approach to be my own Trojan Horse Leadership
Coaching. (Sneaking tough behavioral changes in the back door of easier, more transactional, changes.) It works with about eight of every ten people. And it helps everyone lead from wherever they are — from frontline workers to corner office dwellers. Here’s how it works…

1. Deliver something transactional that saves time, energy and effort.
No matter what the person’s job is, EVERYONE wants this!

I have come to understand the power of this with my emphasis on simplicity.
A few years ago I was one of the guest lecturers during a Leadership University week for the top 100 executives in a Fortune 25 company. I supplied the execs
a list of 15 things I could cover and asked them to pick their Top 3. Wow, was I mistaken that they’d want something highly strategic! Their number one pick was “How to delete 75% of my emails.”

EVERYONE wants better meetings, better ways to empty and scan their in-box, better ways to save time and energy, better ways to deal with overload and morebetterfaster.

2. Discuss the values and principles behind that transaction.
For my workshops, I focus on respect — that people respect themselves and
others more when they organize things to save time…that two of life’s more
precious assets are time and attention. This is the back door hook. Before we move on, I facilitate a conversation about values that everyone in the room
aspires to and wants to behave accordingly. My goal is to create a space where key leaders in the room say, on their own, “We need more of this kind of
respect.” That’s it! That’s the leverage point I can use to discuss
personal accountabilities to others! To discuss everyone’s responsibilities
to lead from where they are.

3. Discuss 30-day accountabilities for the updated view of values.
There are two keys to this final step:
a) Framing the updated values — (in this case: that organization and leadership respect for others includes how we use people’s time) — in terms of personal
accountabilities. Something those in the room need to DO.
b) Keeping it short-term, 30-, 60-, or 90-days.

Don’t go for life-altering behavioral changes. Just something people can do to lead better and differently in the next month or so. The goal is to coach them
on an important change they can quickly implement on their own.

Upsides and Cautions
This approach only achieves sustainable results if…
a) The individual is already inclined to continuous self-improvement, or…
b) If there are several follow-up coaching sessions.

The biggest upside is that this is an entirely safe and acceptable way to introduce elephant-in-the-room personal accountability issues. NO ONE likes to be told “you’re the problem!” Or “you need to change.”

The reason this works is that it approaches those issues through the back door, only AFTER delivering something they highly value (e.g., saving them time) and facilitating a conversation about the values to which they aspire.

After 20 years of practice, I’ve been able to deliver Steps 1, 2 and 3 in about an hour, although the ideal is over several hours, allowing time for the participants to come to new conclusions on their own.

Try your own version of Trojan Horse Leadership Coaching and let me know how it works!

000