BLOGPOST
How to Light the “Motivating Fire” in Your
Leadership Program
Change is hard – ask anyone who’s started a new diet or exercise program. Our brains and bodies
like running the way they’re used to running (you can take that literally or figuratively). We’ve
talked a lot about the importance of building good habits, especially for leadership development,
but there’s a crucial piece to change that is often overlooked in leadership development programs:
how do we even start? Building leader habits is great in theory, but where’s the motivation for all
that come from?
In the popular book The Power of Habit, Duhigg (2012) detailed the entire habit-building process.
One critical component is to identify “keystone habits” (habits, such as willpower, that instigate
other habits) and build off of those. For example, if people stick to that diet program, they’ll
strengthen their willpower to eat healthier. That one positive change can lead to a domino-effect
of more positive changes and stronger willpower in other parts of life – like sticking to a workout
plan or biking to work. Sounds great, right?
But finding your keystone habit isn’t always easy, and identifying that one single behavior to
practice is even more challenging. And that’s where things get tricky! We know that effective
leadership is essentially a collection of good habits that can be learned. The first step to leadership
(or any) development is to find out what makes us tick (like that keystone habit!) and how it can
fuel the fire of change. But for that fire to start in the first place, we also need a good spark.
Where does the “spark” and motivation to change come from? Usually people change as a result
of a life-shaking experience or event that makes us truly, deeply realize the need for change.
A&E’s TV show Intervention operates around that premise - gathering a person in a room with
their loved ones and an ultimatum can be a pretty powerful motivator to change.
At work, change interventions aren’t typically done the A&E way (things would get weird pretty
fast). Instead, we usually just provide feedback – whether it’s 360-degree feedback, feedback
from a personality test, or the dreaded performance appraisal. These tools purport to point
employees in the direction of change (e.g., “You do well on X and Y, but you need to improve on
Z”). However, just giving feedback isn’t enough for behavioral change. Feedback doesn’t always
help us find that keystone habit, or shake us enough to create motivation for change. Being a
passive recipient of feedback doesn’t work because there’s no ACTION involved – just listening.
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Sometimes, we even have to fail multiple times to really see the need for change (take it from
Thomas Jefferson and his 10,000 ways not to build a lightbulb). Researcher evidence says that
we should let employees make mistakes in training because it helps them learn better (Heimbeck
et al., 2003). By applying our efforts towards a goal, we create an active, engaging experience –
or what we call experiential learning. By failing in some capacity, we can gain the insight we need
to change our habits and succeed. Failing at work has implications, though – we can’t just let the
new executive destroy profits this quarter and call it a “learning experience”. So it’s almost as if
we need some sort of standardized experience where people can try, succeed in some ways and
fail in others, and gain the insight and motivation to change – but without real consequences.
Virtual assessment centers (aka live virtual simulations) can do just that. Time and time again,
assessment centers have been empirically shown to work (e.g., Arthur Jr. et al., 2003). Why do
they work so well? Because they can be that life-shaking experience we’re looking for to finally
change your habits for the better. Assessment centers have high face validity (people like doing
them – they’re even fun! – and people see real results). Assessment centers create that
experiential learning experience you’re looking for; by putting employees in the “hot seat” to run
their own team or business, they’re actively involved in the feedback process. Then, at the end,
they don’t have to just listen to feedback and make inferences about what to improve on– instead,
they get actionable results that directly link to leader habits.
Long story short – if you want to “light a fire” under your employees to effect change and develop
good habits, then focus on building on their keystone habits (the kindling). And habit-building
always begins at square one: finding out how to change (the fuel) and gaining the motivation to
do it (there’s your spark!). Assessment centers just might be the fire-starting kit you’ve been
looking for. (But don’t start a real fire at work. It worked out well in Office Space, but that was
kind of a one-time thing).
Interested in this topic?
Register for a complimentary 45-minute webinar (+15 min for Q&A) on how to maximize
motivation for training and development. Date: January 24 @ 7.00 Los Angeles/10.00 New
York/15.00 London
The HR Certification Institute has pre-approved this activity for 1.0 general
recertification credit towards PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification.
The use of this seal confirms that this activity has met HR Certification Institute’s® (HRCI®) criteria for
recertification credit pre-approval. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute
of the quality of the activity. It means that this activity has met the HR Certification Institute’s criteria to be
pre-approved for recertification credit.
Martin Lanik is the CEO at Pinsight and holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He
specializes in live virtual simulations (aka virtual assessment centers). With Pinsight’s costeffective simulation technology, Martin helps companies make more accurate succession decisions
and develop stronger leaders faster. Learn more at www.pinsight.biz.
References

Arthur Jr., W., Day, E. A., McNelly, T. L. and Edens, P. S. (2003). A meta-analysis of the
criterion-related validity of assessment center dimensions. Personnel Psychology, 56: 125–
153. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00146.x

Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. United
States: Random House.

Eimbeck, D., Frese, M., Sonnentag, S. and Keith, N. (2003). Integrating errors into the
training process: The function of error management instructions and the role of goal
orientation. Personnel Psychology, 56: 333–361. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00153.x