A Secret Weapon for Building Strong Teams

I am reading an excellent book called Unlock Behavior, Unleash Profits, by Dr. Leslie Braksick. The book talks about using behavioral science to bring about desired behaviors at the individual and organizational level. Correlating the content of the book with my professional experience in the PM field, I realized that most Project Managers miss out on a great opportunity to make their projects more successful by not taking advantage of the behavioral science.

In my career as a PM, I often see my fellow PMs focus on budgets, timelines, requirements management, scope management, issues logs, risks, and a million other things related to the project. I rarely see PMs focus on professional growth and development of their team members. In matrix organizations, team members don't report to the Project Manager, and PMs assume that professional growth and development of the team is not their responsiblity. Moreover, many feel they have little control over the team members' performance, since they hold neither the carrot nor the stick and thus can't adequately reward or punish the team members to optimize their behavior.

Fortunately, the behavioral science provides us with two mechanisms that don't rely on the ability to give or to take away tangible rewards. The mechanisms I am talking about are Feedback and Shaping.

For every behavior, there's an antecedent (a trigger) and a consequence. Feedback is one of the forms of consequences; it can re-enforce a desired behavior or lower the likelihood of an undesired behavior. Feedback doesn't cost money; you don't need to control a person's salary or bonus to give it. Yet, it can yield amazing results if done right.

While I would highly encourage you to read Chapter 5 of the book to get a comprehensive review of the feedback process, here's a quick summary of what constitutes effective feedback, in Dr. Braksick's view:

1. Make it specific. Don't just tell somebody they did great. Focus on details.

2. For every piece of constructive feedback, give 4 pieces of positive feedback. Remember, positive feedback re-enforces behaviors you appreciate. Constructive feedback is often aimed at stopping or changing behaviors you don't appreciate.

3. When providing constructive feedback, focus on the issue, not on the person.

4. Deliver feedback soon after the behavior occurs; otherwise, you may forget the details, and the person on the receiving end may have difficulty recalling the details of the behavior.

5. Be sincere. If you don't mean it, don't say it, as your tone of voice and your body language are likely to give you away, even as your words paint a different picture.

6. Give feedback often. It is free; it gives you the power to influence other people's behavior, and people will view you as a leader.

7. Avoid giving no feedback. No feedback is the worst option you can opt for. It neither re-enforce nor blocks a behavior, leaving the person guessing whether what they did was good or not.

8. Don't refrain from providing people with positive feedback. Remember how good you felt the last time someone gave you a specific and sincere praise? Make a day for other people by helping them feel noticed and cared for.


More in Shaping coming soon...