Behavior Management - Managing The Toughest of Men. Taming The Beast.



behavior management

Behavior management is at the heart of leadership management. A leader seeks to achieve results through people. But the people can sometimes be a pain in the neck.

So, how do you get results from hard-headed people? What do you do?

The first step towards effective behavior management is to understand human behavior.

Man is selfish by nature. You don't agree? Well, give it a second thought. Consider this example.

You are in dare need of a soft loan to fix a problem. You go to your dear friend and ask for $500 loan that you intend to pay back by the end of month. Your friend tells you he's not very buoyant now. So, he gives you $150 instead of the $500 dollars you requested.

Just after you left, the wife walks in and asks for $1000 dollars to address a small problem she's having with XYZ. He parts with the money without hesitation.

So, was he really broke?

Obviously, not. He simply was reserving a part of what he had for his family. He and his family comes first. You, his friend and others, come second.

The same human selfishness accounts for the wide spread environmental problems the world has today. Most people do not understand the balance of the environment and our relationship with other inhabitants of the earth. They think only of now . . . what they can get for themselves NOW without concern for how that impacts negatively on the environment.

The result?

Many of earth's species have become extinct, the earth is getting hotter (global warming), many islands have been wiped out due to rising sea levels, and man is on the path to self-destruction (if unchecked).

You must understand this simple but profound truth for effective behavior management.

The simple truth?

Man is a selfish 'animal'.

How does understanding this help you? How does it apply to business and managing people?

Workers or subordinates are concerned about what's in it for them. Present a brilliant business proposal and they're thinking deep down in them, "What's in it for me?".

It's absolutely important that you understand this. If you do, then you can tailor your sales message, your business proposition, and your leadership ingenuity towards getting the desired result while helping your followers fulfill their dreams.

Your organization is not going to get ahead if your subordinates think the business does not care for them. Care about the people and they will care about your business.

Employees don't like to be used as tools. They have goals, they have aspirations. The leader must help them move toward achieving their individual aspirations within the context of the organization's business. If he doesn't, he's in for a tough time.

Ironically, companies insist that the greatest most valuable resource in the organization are the people. Yet many business leaders come up with policies that are anti-people. How do you explain that?

That's pretty dumb, isn't it?

So what's the lesson?

To succeed at leadership, the leader must take the employees' welfare into consideration in whatever policy the business formulates.

Yes, the business is not a charity organization. The overriding objective of any business is to maximize profit. And that's what you as the leader must strive to attain.

However, numerous case studies have shown that those profit figures cannot be achieved if the people working for you are dissatisfied and disillusioned. If they are, they may actually set in motion bottlenecks in the system that can sabotage your good work.

Bottom line.

Don't neglect the people. And this includes your employees as well as other stakeholders like suppliers.

To succeed, understand behavior management . . . the act of giving and taking. It is the path to effective leadership management and true leadership success.

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