Heidi Grant Halvorson spoke during the very last session of the very last day of the 2012 ASTD conference in Denver, Colorado. Halvorson is an Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia University Business School. She blogs for Fast Company, The Huffington Post, and Psychology Today. I had not heard of Halvorson before, but I was interested in what she had to say. She spoke on motivation.
She began with a question: what do successful people do differently?
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Halvorson started by explaining that we are storytellers. Our brains use stories to help us understand what is around us. We are always asking why. Stories let us know what to do. They help to guide our decisions. We need to understand ourselves to make the best decisions. We tell stories about ourselves to ourselves. She asked us to think about the stories we tell ourselves when we succeed and fail. Do we rationalize our success? Our stories may be wrong.
She explains she was a talented student because she took the right actions rather than she possessed a gene for smartness. The stories we tell ourselves can lead to bad choices. Those same stories can also close doors. What matters is what we do, rather than who we believe we are. Asking people why they are successful may not be accurate. The story may not be the right story. Success is based on taking the right strategies.
Halvorson expressed her frustrated by the amount of great content in journal articles that never gets to the public. Because of her extensive research, she wrote a book, blogs, and an ebook on 9 things successful people do differently. She spoke on two of the nine items.
There are two phases of doing:
- Strategies for getting ready
- Actually doing it.
The problem is actually doing it
Adopting a Get Better Mindset
During the Phase 1 or getting ready strategy, we must adopt a mindset for success. We can either adopt a “Be Good” mindset or “Get Better” mindset.
Most times, we take on the “Be good” mindset, where we are trying to prove ourselves to others, validating our skills, and trying to perform better than others. We always validate ourselves with others.
Instead, we should adopt a “Get better” mindset. With a “Get better” mindset, we are working on developing skills and performing better than last time.
Halvorson presented fascinating research comparing “Be good” mindset against the “Get better” mindset. Here are some results:
Handling challenges
People with a “get better” mindset handle challenges better than those without .
When things go wrong
People with a “get better” mindset did better even though things went wrong.
Distress and problem solving
People who have a “get better” mindset did better when problem solving.
Leadership confidence
People with a “get better” mindset use a role model to gain confidence.
With a “Get better” mindset, people are more interested in and enjoy their job more. They think deeper and more creatively. They are more persistent. All this leads to superior performance over the “Do good” mindset.
We need to adopt a “get better” mindset, as well as encourage others to adopt this mindset. How do we change mindsets from “be good” to “getting better”?
Encouraging Improvement Through Feedback
Use framing and feedback words
- Training
- Develop
- Learning skills
- Challenging
- Gaining
- Learn
- Acquire over time
- Practice
- Mistakes
- Make progress
- Improve
Giving people permission to make mistakes is important because people with a “get better” mindset will make fewer mistakes. If people compare themselves to themselves, performance will improve. When evaluating employees, encourage improvement rather than a comparison with others.
Turning Intentions Into Action
Halvorson pointed out when we don’t have intention, we will not carry out our intended activity. When we do intend to do something, we do it 50% of the time. We only succeed 50% of the time because of large execution mistakes.
- Not identifying exactly what we need to do (specific).
- We miss opportunities to act.
According to Halvorson, we can improve on execution if use “If-then planning”. If-then planning requires that we specify what we will do, and when and where we will do it, in advance. Here are some examples:
- If it is 3 pm, I will make that phone call.
- If it is Monday morning, I will check in with all my direct reports.
Halvorson told a story about a research project involving a Christmas essay. A professor asked students to write an essay over Christmas break and asked them when and where they would write it. The professor requested the if-then plan from some students but did not ask the others. The results varied depending on whether the students created a plan. Those without a plan turned in essays 32% of the time, and those with an if-then plan turned in essays 71% of the time.
Why If-Then Planning Works
Why did this occur?
Halvorson explains that a plan is linked in your mind. When a situation occurs, then an action happens. Basically, in your mind, you are waiting for the situation to happen. Once you detect a situation, you take action automatically. If-then planners have 91% success. Using if-then planning works well to overcome bad habits. If-then planning is good for distractions and self-doubt.
Halvorson challenged us to write out some if-then plans to set focus, get rid of our bad stories, and visualize the steps we will take to make success happen.
This was an interesting presentation in regard to the content. The challenge is putting it into action.
- In the spirit of full disclosure, this is an affiliate link, so if you purchase this item through my link, I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. I only recommend products & systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands.
Plus, when you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you a lot of free stuff. 🙂 Thank you in advance for your support!s
