Winning Behaviours : where do you sit above or below the line

As we move back into more psychological / behavioural research in 2013, many of the articles around practical client engagement tips will be interspersed with some behavioural topics especially motivation, high performance and personality.

At a function today a discussion with a senior executive in financial services led into above the line and below the line mindsets.

Roger Connors (http://www.ozprinciple.com/self/steps-to-accountability/)highlights that below the line behaviour is seen in individuals and businesses with a blame mentality.

True success comes from above the line greatness : determination, accountability, hard work and collaboration.

Connors espouses the : see it, own it, solve it and do it method as steps to accountability.

We at PCE totally agree.

What is especially interesting to PCE though is working with individuals and companies below the line : who are unaware of their behaviours and subsequently have no momentum to shift above the line.

How do you engage a business or an individual without self awareness?

The intervention that must occur is one of honesty and the hard conversation that what is occurring does not meet the expected standards that will lead to success.

But under who's definition is that success. PCE knows of companies and individuals whose success is defined often by numbers and the corporate creed and values are nothing but a page on a website that has no life within the organisation as it is not demonstrated in its leaders, not embraced by staff and certainly not measured in performance metrics.

Worse still is where there are such defined values but leaders have not the skills or courage to ensure staff are employed because they embody these values, educated on how to develop these values and counselled when they do not adhere to the values.

The underlying sub culture that eventuates is one of tolerance of poor corporate culture and a lack of coherence about what it is that the company stands for.

So what to do?

It's about harnessing the power of a few leaders in the business, rewriting the script and delivering a clear message to the business or the individual and providing the resources to set people up to enable them to see it, own it, solve it and do it.

That's a difficulty corporate culture change piece and surely fails when poor behaviour is ignored or tolerated or worse rewarded: the corporate revenue requirements never justify means that are detrimental to the workplace.

What we need then is passionate positive and transformational change agents to live a set of values that are accessible to those around them.

Finding them : we'll that's a little harder.