By Dr. Michael Frisina
Survey upon survey continues to reveal that core members of an organization rate mutual respect as the singular most important organizational value. Organizational performance is predicated upon every individual in the organization learning, applying, and sustaining, highly effective behavior skills. If you desire to become a “go to” person of your organization, you have to accept personal responsibility and accountability for your behavior. Such behavior includes all that is related to what we choose to think, what we
choose to believe, how we create and focus our attitudes, and how we choose to form our habits.
In a moment of self- reflection, ask yourself the following question, “Are my current habits and behavior getting me to where I want to go?” If the answer is “No” you need to consider
making some changes. Far too many people are unaware of how they are perceived by family, friends, and professional colleagues. We all know and it is easy for us to recognize other people with bad habits, disturbing, and disruptive behaviors. The harder thing is recognizing those same bad habits and behaviors in oneself. While it may be true that what we think about our behavior is personal and intimate, our behavior itself is never private. Remember this - behavior lapses are obvious to everyone except the person who
commits them.
No one wants to work with the proverbial jerk at work. These people are disruptive to performance and productivity and are now making their organizations targets for lawsuits. Note that performance failure typically is not the result of the absence of technical skill but incompetence in behavioral skill. You may gain higher levels of organizational responsibility based on your technical skill and performance, but your overall success is clearly dependent on your social/behavioral relationship skills. The truth is that the so-called soft skills of behavior are really the hard skills that create the measure of influence for performance success.
Time and again the fundamental problems related to the lack of engagement and work performance enhancement is related to how people consistently experience their leader’s and peers’ negative behavior. These failures can be directly linked to the absence, inconsistent, positive behavior, as individual behavior is singularly the most important predictor to organizational performance. As a result, everyone in the organization needs to be able to confront their own behavior. Sadly, few people have the courage and willingness to do so on their own. Consequently, it is imperative for leadership at all levels within an organization to establish accountability within their performance culture. With accountability you then align behavior to organizational values to create and sustain highly effective relationships that powers engagement and drives organizational performance.
Do you have a Jerk at Work? Have you spent hours trying to find ways to avoid or even survive their behavior and attitude? If so, you won't want to miss the April 10th, webinar: Jerks at Work. To learn more or sign up before it fills up, go to www.cornerstone-leadership.com. Labels: behavior, columbia, cornerstone leadership solutions, human resourrces, jerks at work, lincoln, ne, performance, self-awareness, skills, south carolina, success, webinar