Focusing on Behaviors Rather than Attitudes

"She's got such a bad attitude!" "He gets his work done but it's clear he doesn't really care about the store." "We're looking for team players, not drama queens, victims or martyrs!"

When we say - or hear - any the phrases above, most of us get a pretty clear image in our minds. We can tell a "bad" attitude from a "positive" attitude with our eyes closed, right? So why is it so hard to explain to the offending staff person what we want them to do differently?

Merriam Webster defines "attitude" as "a mental position with regard to a fact or state." Hmmm. I don't know about you, but the last time I checked I wasn't as good at reading people's minds as I'd like to think I am. And when we assign attitudes to people, we're basically saying we can read their minds, and we have no real data to use when they disagree with us about what they're thinking/feeling.

Which is not to say that we're wrong to be unhappy with such behavior. But THAT'S where we need to focus - on the behavior, not on the attitude. Back to my friend the dictionary, which defines "behavior" as "the manner of conducting oneself." You don't have to be a mind reader to identify a behavior. Behaviors are observable and, thus, measurable.

If we focus on identifying the behaviors that lead us to believe someone has a particular attitude, set clear expectations on the behaviors we do and do not want to see on the job and then measure whether or not those behaviors are occurring, we have effective management tools.

For example, what are the behaviors that would lead you to label someone as unreliable? Well, they might include: regularly showing up late for work, occasionally missing a shift, not completing assigned work, leaving work without checking out with a supervisor. Instead of saying, "to keep working here, you need to be more reliable," you can say, "here's what I need from you if you want to keep working here: punched in and at your work station by the scheduled time, no missed shifts, all tasks on the to-do list completed before the end of the shift and your to-do list signed off by a supervisor before you punch out."

Focusing on behaviors instead of attitudes is one of those things that I know is important but that I need to remind myself about from time to time - and I find that is true for many managers. It's just so quick and easy to lump the behaviors together under an all-purpose attitude that I fall into doing that. But it isn't actually quick and easy in the long run - in fact it can delay focusing on changing the behaviors that are the real problem.