Ticking Behavioral Time Bomb
I grew up in a ballet studio. Many dancers suffer from ”hyperextension”, which most often happens in the knees, but occurs in the feet and other body places as well. Hyperextension can affect a dancer’s performance negatively. Uncompensated and uncorrected, it will eventually cause injury, not to mention how bad it looks uncorrected on stage!
It is the same with all of us in our workplace behaviors. We can have “hyperextension” of our strengths.
- A strength that causes a salesperson to be a hard-driving, goal-achieving machine could be an attribute that causes the person to be impatient, a primadonna, a non-team player, or possibly prione to anger.
- The salesperson who is the expert on your product, the stats, the competition and the latest research may be the same salesperson who is in front of the computer so much that they never get out into the field, therfore, do not have the success they want and need.
- The employee who is a “grab the bull by the horns” go-getter may end up unable to delegate, burned out, and alienated by others around her who want to share in the tasks.
Every one of us needs to be optimizing our strengths, and minimizing our weaknesses. The beginning is to understand what makes us “tick”. We all have different mindsets based on how we are “wired” from birth, as well as how, where, and when we were brought up in life and in business, what beliefs we have, and other factors.
Under stress, some of our best characteristics are accentuated and can be perceived by others as destructive and harmful….this is known as an hyperextension of our strengths. In this case, ironically, our strengths get in the way of our success, thereby becoming weaknesses to the organization.
Using validated assessments that help us understand behavioral strengths and individual motivators, so we can understand each other better, know how to communicate, put the right teams together, and optimize everyone’s best qualities, will keep those characteristics from undermining us.
In ballet, there are a number of ways we do this physically. In the workplace, we do it behaviorally.
According to recent research, 40% of employees cited stress as the primary reason to leave the job.
Do you think any of your team is under stress? If so, it is time to use some validated and proven assessment tools that show us the “how” and “why” of our actions. Knowledge is power, and understanding is wisdom. We leaders need to be powerful and wise. Let’s start today. Call me about behavioral assessments. I can provide many assessments on a complimentary basis.
Reading can give you tremendous insight into this whole world, too. Call me if you need some good book titles or information about validated assessments. As the leader, it starts with you. If you don’t have a good executive performance coach, I highly recommend hiring one who will hold the mirror for you. Work on yourself, and then work on your team. What strengths of yours are you allowing to become overextended? What hyperextensions do you see in your company?
Who are the people you need to understand better? Turning a blind eye to your own or your team’s behaviors, values, and how they are wired is a ticking time bomb. If you’ve ever had teenagers, you know this.
Committed to your success,
Coach Julia
Tags: Behavioral assessments, stress, Validated assessments, workplace behavior
