Tapping into Human Behavior: The Key to Enhancing Performance and Job Satisfaction

With a better understanding of behavior, all other components of hiring, developing and managing people becomes much easier. Below is an overview of how behavior is defined and how behavior impacts results.

Traits are “hardwired” and are established prior to being born. Further development occurs over the next fifteen years of life and is pretty much established around the age of fifteen. Traits determine how a person: Thinks, and Feels about most things that confront them and are great predictors of how they will behave in those situations.

On the other hand, behaviors are predominately learned, but primarily influenced by their traits. We then spend the rest of our lives learning how to behave in various situations. In a work environment, we are typically required to behave differently in various situations. When these “behaviors” are not our normal or natural and therefore our preferred way of behaving, and we need to be effective in this situation, we need to adapt our style to accommodate the situation. The more experience and “wisdom” we acquire, the easier it gets to make these adjustments like being more patient or being more assertive, or less assertive and more accommodating, etc.

The problem is not IF we can adapt but rather HOW LONG we can SUSTAIN the required change.

Adaptive behavior is difficult to sustain!

Behavioral adaptability is like a rubber exercise band. You can easily stretch them out, but holding it in that position for any length of time can be strenuous. And for each additional behavior that you have to simultaneously modify, the level of difficulty becomes that much greater!

And this brings us to:

The 3 Foundational Strengths that create a consistent and happy employee

1. Knowledge: Specific to the job’s requirements
2. Skills: Application of the above specific knowledge that creates consistent end results
3. Traits: An alignment of the required behavior of the job with how the individual is “hardwired” (personality traits) to think, feel and therefore behave.

Therefore, the key to enhancing job performance and satisfaction or the “right” role is one that does not demand that we have to modify our behavior to the point that we have to put in that much effort. A role where we can just be ourselves (think, feel and behave in a manner that is “normal and natural” to us) and simply rely on the knowledge and skills that are necessary to succeed in that role.

To learn more about this, check out my book Hire Train Retain: How to Get the Right People in the Right Roles Doing the Right Things , our free downloads or sign up for a demo of the XP3 Talent System.