SuperLeaders: Role Modeling
In This Episode
Want your team to pick up new behaviors faster and more holistically? Listen to this episode of the LeaderLab powered by LifeLabs Learning to discover one SuperLeader tool that makes all the difference.
Want to dig a little deeper? Check out the research referenced in the episode:
Rebecca Williamson, "Learning the Rules: Observation and Imitation of a Sorting Strategy by 36-Month-Old Children"
APA Dictionary of Psychology, "Vicarious Reinforcement"
Transcript
Vanessa Tanicien, narrating: Hello, and welcome to The LeaderLab, the podcast powered by LifeLabs Learning. I'm your host and LifeLabs leadership trainer, Vanessa Tanicien. In each episode, my Labmates and I distill our findings into powerful tipping point skills, the smallest changes that tip over to make the biggest impact in the shortest time.
Vanessa Tanicien: Welcome back to the lab, listeners. Today, we're continuing the conversation on SuperLeaders and what SuperLeaders do differently than average everyday leaders. What we know is that SuperLeaders are anxiety-decreasers, and they enhance psychological safety of their teams. Meaning folks around them feel respected, seen, and safe. To help me walk through the next trait of a SuperLeader is our very own Massella Dukuly. She is the L&D lead here at LifeLabs Learning, and she just completed her 200th ride on Peloton, and I guess I'm supposed to be excited for. A little jealous.
Massella Dukuly: You should.
Vanessa Tanicien: So, welcome back to The Lab, Massella.
Massella Dukuly: Thanks for having me back, Vanessa.
Vanessa Tanicien: I want to know. From your perspective, what is one thing that SuperLeaders do differently?
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. So, SuperLeaders. This is one of my favorite topic just because I think it's so important to pause for a little bit and hyperfocus on what makes a leader great. Or in this case, super. The topic that I want to bring up today is the idea of role modeling. Now, role modeling is all about making sure that you practice what you preach. You walk the talk. People see you doing the same things that you say are important within your organization.
Vanessa Tanicien: Oh my goodness. What happens when people don't role model effectively?
Massella Dukuly: Great question. There are, of course, a number of consequences that come up when people aren't role modeling. First and foremost, I'd say there's general confusion. So, people not knowing what to actually be doing. You might be saying one thing but doing another, which leaves people in a position where they feel unsure.
Massella Dukuly: The second thing that we might run into is a lack of credibility that you might have with your team. If you're saying something's important, but people don't see you doing it, what's implicit is that it doesn't really matter. And therefore, they're unlikely to practice it. Third thing is just a lack of productivity and intentionality. Lack of productivity being that people might be very busy doing things, but perhaps not doing the right things. Which is frustrating to you, and ultimately frustrating to them once they realize it.
Vanessa Tanicien: So, role modeling. Huge topic. What can we learn in the span of ... I don't know, eight minutes? So we can be better role models.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah, we've got eight minutes. And the skill that is most important here for you will be to learn to behaviorize.
Vanessa Tanicien: Ooh, behaviorize. And you said that in such a sensual tone.
Massella Dukuly: Behaviorize.
Vanessa Tanicien: How does behaviorizing something relate to role modeling? And also, what is behaviorizing?
Massella Dukuly: Behaviorizing is essentially the catalyst that puts us in the position to be able to role model well. What that means is when you are behaviorizing, you are very clear on specifically what a particular value, statement, message ... whatever the case might be looks like in action. For an example, it's not enough to tell your team, "Hey, we need to be more strategic." What does being strategic actually look like? Once we can define that, we're behaviorizing it and putting ourselves in a better position to actually practice it, which makes it easier for other people to recognize, pick up on their own, and do the same thing.
Vanessa Tanicien: I love that. That reminds me of the concept in social learning theory called vicarious reinforcement, where somebody is more likely to engage in a particular behavior by simply observing somebody else's behavior that's been reinforced. Right? If anybody's ever seen Massella's handwriting, so beautiful. It's the stuff of dreams. I remember that Massella got a compliment on her handwriting in front of me once, and mine is not that great. Since then, Massella's been my handwriting role model. I know that's a silly example, but I can imagine that this can happen pretty easily in the workplace.
Massella Dukuly: It absolutely can. That actually reminds me of some really interesting research that was done by Rebecca Williamson and her team of researchers. And what they had done was dove into the topic of social learning. Specifically, exploring imitation patterns. And they were looking at 36 month old children. And 80 of these children were brought into a lab, and they were split into three groups.
Massella Dukuly: The first group actually watched adults as they sorted objects by various qualities. Maybe it was color, shape, or the sound that the objects made. The pre-sort group simply saw the end result of the sorting. Not the process at all. The baseline group didn't see any sort of prompt, and they didn't see the objects sorted whatsoever. As expected, the researchers assumed that the children who had seen the pre-sorting would be better at it. And that was certainly the case. They had an easier time sorting, and they sorted in a more uniform way.
Massella Dukuly: But I think the other really cool thing was that the children who had seen the sorting ... even when they were given different types of objects, were able to actually really mimic and imitate the pattern that the adult used. What we learned from this is that it's not only about seeing somebody doing one specific thing, and doing it again, and again, and again. It's also learning their ways of thinking and applying it to other scenarios.
Vanessa Tanicien: Consider my mind blown. That's so awesome. What's really cool about what you're saying is that as a SuperLeader, you can train folks to do a variety of things simply by role modeling one thing. Behaviorizing one thing.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. Absolutely. How your team watches you manage change or a stressful situation is going to depict then how they do the same thing in other scenarios.
Vanessa Tanicien: You have got my attention, and I have to take this thing for a spin. Take me on this behaviorizing journey, Massella.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. Let's do it. So, quick experiment. I want you right now to think about one of your company values, and I want you to pick your favorite one. What would you say is your favorite value?
Vanessa Tanicien: Woo. If we had to pick a LifeLabs value right now ... Our newest value is Open the Circle, and it's all about bringing diverse perspectives/ideas to the initiatives that we're running, as well as creating opportunities to open the circle for folks at the company. It's our newest value, and we're so excited about it.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. I love that. Vanessa, the idea here now is to take that and to behaviorize it. And simply, what that means is being able to pause, reflect on what opening the circle is in action. What comes to mind for you?
Vanessa Tanicien: Huh, several things. Number one, it means that when I am launching a project that I'm clear on the stakeholders ... inclusive planning, making sure that people who are impacted get a voice and a choice. Two, when opportunities become available for certain things that I think of ways to level the playing field on who gets that information. I know that in a number of different workplaces, information gets put into silos, and inequities happen simply because people weren't aware. And three, it's just making sure that we're open to feedback from different people as well.
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. I love that. I'm hearing three different things. And so then my question for you would be: when have you noticed yourself specifically practicing those things?
Vanessa Tanicien: How did I put those behaviors into action?
Massella Dukuly: Yeah.
Vanessa Tanicien: I would say recently when we are doing a revamp of ... I keep talking about our product initiatives. But there's a lot of new stuff coming down the pipeline, everyone. I'm super excited about it. But this idea of opening the circle around our project workflow. Getting some more visibility into what's happening, so that way we can get more feedback about what works and what doesn't work, is one of the things that has happened. I actually put in my emails #openthecircle, so that way people know that I'm specifically trying to use that value.
Massella Dukuly: I love that. I love it. So, you can pinpoint a specific time in which you've practiced it. But in addition to that, you're actually identifying it, labeling it, talking about it, which I think is another really important part of behaviorizing, which will help you role model. When you can talk about something, and talk about it clearly and well, people can identify that it's happening ... again, you're more likely to see it practiced by other people as well.
Vanessa Tanicien: Love that. I know that folks who are listening to this podcast are busy. I mean, there's a reason this podcast is 11 minutes or less, right?
Massella Dukuly: Yeah.
Vanessa Tanicien: Massella, you just highlighted a number of different steps that a person can take. How can we ensure that folks who are busy, or say they don't have the time, can make space for this type of behavior? And that brings us to our LeaderLab Listener Experiment. Massella, what should folks be experimenting with in their laboratories of life?
Massella Dukuly: Yeah. Listen, if you're busy, I totally get it. I will say this, though. The return on investment for taking the time to be more clear, so that you can behaviorize the things that matter most, will go a long way. What I'd recommend doing is picking something that you've been wanting to see more from your team. From there, what I'd like you to do is behaviorize it. Pause for a moment. What does that thing look like in action? Go ahead and make a note on your calendar to practice it. But in addition to practicing it, I'd like you to get feedback from somebody on how it went. We want to create a cycle where you have an opportunity to really learn from what's working and what's not working, so that you'll be able to adjust your behavior moving forward.
Vanessa Tanicien: Amazing. Behaviorizing is the first step to being the role model for people's dreams. And Massella, you will always be a role model for me. Thanks for being here.
Massella Dukuly: Thanks for having me, Vanessa. The feeling is mutual.
Vanessa Tanicien: And that's a wrap of another episode of The LeaderLab. Make sure to subscribe and share this with at least one other person, so we can all be SuperLeaders. It's pretty awesome. The Leader Lab is executive produced and hosted by me, Vanessa Tanicien. NeEddra James is our senior producer, and Alana Burman is our director and editor. If you'd like to hang out with us on social, go ahead and find us on LinkedIn at Lifelabs Learning and on Twitter @lifelabslearn. To bring training to your team, head on over to lifelabslearning.com. See you in the lab, soon.
