Leadership/Belief Dynamic

Unless you've lived your life under a rock, we have all heard of "The power of positive thinking", "The Secret" and thousands of other books, tapes, and motivational speakers on the subject of what I believe is the mind/emotion/behavior connection. In simple language positive thoughts bring about behaviors that lead to positive results while negative thoughts bring about behaviors that lead to negative results.

A well known management theory by Douglas McGregor is called: Theory X and Theory Y. This theory is based on the premise that people bring a set of beliefs with them to work that will impact their behavior. For example, one set of beliefs might include:

• People do not like work and will avoid it if they can.
• People need to be coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put effort into achieving organizational goals.
• People would rather avoid responsibility, have little motivation, and want security above all else.

McGregor labeled this sample set of beliefs as Theory X.

A different set of beliefs might include:

• Physical and mental effort in work is natural.
• People will be self-directed and self-controlled in achieving goals to which they are committed.
• People will accept and even seek responsibility under the right conditions.

McGregor labeled this sample set of beliefs as Theory Y.

As you can see Theory X and Theory Y beliefs are polar opposite. To make his point, McGregor grouped a set of negative beliefs about people and work and a positive set of beliefs about people and work. People are more complex and thus our beliefs are usually not as polarized as seen in McGregor's examples. The point is to examine our beliefs both positive and negative and see where our beliefs may be driving unproductive behaviors.

Cognitive/Behavioral theory is the basis for McGregor's Theory. Situations trigger a series of beliefs which translate into thoughts, these thoughts then trigger a set of emotions, and the emotions trigger behaviors. Here is an example.

A manager, whose beliefs are closer to those in the Theory X example, sees two service techs talking past their lunch hour. Since he believes that people will always avoid work, the manager gets angry and he reprimands the employees. The techs in return get angry and their productivity decreases all afternoon. After all, if the manager thinks they are goofing off, they might as well.

A manager, whose beliefs are closer to those in the Theory Y example, sees two service techs talking past their lunch hour. Since he believes that people are committed to objectives, the manager becomes curious and asks the techs what they are discussing. He finds out that they are putting a strategy together to serve the needs of one of their A customers. He provides them with positive reinforcement and lets them continue this important discussion.

Do you see the connection? The beliefs triggered thoughts (mind) which turn into emotions (feelings) which caused behaviors. This is the cycle that is so automatic that we do not make the connections consciously. We only feel the feelings and then live with our reaction.

Taking this theory into a much broader scope we now have the Cognitive Behavioral Theory. This theory says that we live our lives based on a set of beliefs that are triggered by different situations which then cause thoughts which turn into feelings and trigger our behavior.

Remember, the point is to examine our beliefs both positive and negative and see where our beliefs may be driving unproductive behaviors and then work on changing those beliefs.

Frank Outlaw said it well in the following poem:

• Watch your thoughts; they become words.
• Watch your words; they become actions.
• Watch your actions; they become habits.
• Watch you habits; they become character.
• Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

(More on how to change our beliefs and thus our behavior in the next newsletter.)