“You gonna eat lightnin’; you’re gonna crap thunder. You’re gonna become a very dangerous person.” -Mickey in Rocky (1976)
With tough love (and some hilarious one-liners), Mickey showed Rocky he believed in him. As a result, Rocky gained the awareness, motivation, and confidence to dramatically improve his fighting, eventually becoming a champion.1
The relationship between a boxing trainer and the fighter is a useful metaphor for thinking about talent development, especially at the more senior levels. The trainer plays a pivotal role leading up to the fight, helping the boxer to select the right fights and reinforcing lessons after the fight. However, the results happen in the ring where all the trainer can do is support and observe.
Leadership principle: The first condition for developing a new skill or behavior is to foster a sense of belief.
Last week, I made the case for “why” it’s so critical to double down on talent development during volatility. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll share an approach to the “how,” which I’ll explore through the lens of a leader with their direct team.2
The process of developing a new skill or mindset requires three steps: 1) Believe, 2) Act, and 3) Reinforce (BAR).3 The leader and their team member have a role in each step of the BAR cycle.
Like a dancer learning a new move, sometimes our team members will nail it the first time through the cycle. Other times it will require multiple BAR cycles for a new skill or mindset to stick.
So what conditions are necessary to ensure our team members BELIEVE they can develop their “one thing”?4
Three things: a) Awareness, b) Motivation and c) Confidence
Consider the example of one senior leader who had been a fix-it operator for most of his career. The CEO decided that this senior leader’s “one thing” was to develop a “growth” toolkit for a portfolio of businesses. In this situation, the first two conditions of “believe” were clearly established. He knew he didn’t have a track record of driving above market revenue growth (awareness), yet was determined to add this to his toolkit so he could further advance his career (motivation). Where he needed the most support was in “confidence.” Unfortunately, 360-feedback actually discouraged this leader, because others pigeon-holed him as just a turnaround leader with underdeveloped “growth muscles.” To combat this confidence obstacle, the CEO pointed to several situations where this leader had turned around what others perceived as insurmountable messes in drastically different markets. She built this leader's confidence by emphasizing that if he had the resilience and learning agility to succeed in these diverse settings, he could certainly develop the necessary skills and build the team to drive growth in a complex business.
Take Action: Practical and Proven Steps
Cultivate awareness. Have a “leadership development” 1:1 chat with each of your direct reports and share the “one thing” where you need them to grow and become more effective in order to deliver on the scorecard. Give them concrete examples of where they fell short in this area and what great looks like. If they still struggle to understand, encourage them to seek feedback from 3-5 people on how effective they are in this area.
Unlock motivation. Connect their “one thing” to what they value. A great place to start is identifying their primary motive (achievement, affiliation or power) and framing their “one thing” in a way that appeals to this motive.5 Also, based on their preference, give them either directive structure or autonomy as they move into the “Act” phase.6
Instill confidence. Remind them of how they’ve developed a new skill, behavior or mindset previously. Explore what it was they did well in each stage of the BAR cycle. Reinforce that you believe they can make progress on their “one thing” and that you have their back even when they make mistakes or fail in their experiments in this area.
In next week’s reflection, we’ll go deep on the second step in the BAR cycle - Act - so that you can embrace your inner “Mickey” the trainer and help your team rise to the occasion in the ring.
Reflect: Some Questions to Consider
When I think about the “one thing” for each of my direct reports, which element of “Believe” do I need to spend disproportionate time on (Awareness, Motivation, Confidence)?
For my team members who have lower self-awareness generally, what practices can I start with the full team to help them further develop in this area?
For my team members whose “one thing” will be particularly difficult for them to develop, how do I ensure that they know that I have confidence that they can make progress even if it takes multiple BAR cycles to get there?
If you haven’t seen Rocky, make this a priority for the weekend. (No excuses…hahaha). I’m sure there are some references that have not aged well (it was made nearly 50 years ago, which is wild to write) but it’s still such a good film!
Organization-wide leadership efforts and learning and development programs have their place (clap it up for LinkedIn Learning and the Learning Management System.) Even with these types of resources, my experience is that it’s the direct manager who has the potential to have the greatest impact on the growth trajectory of the individuals they manage.
This model borrows heavily from David Peterson’s development pipeline. I find it easier to remember the steps by using a pneumonic like BAR (Believe, Act and Reinforce) and have it limited to three things versus five. At the same time, it’s important not to lose the nuance and power of David’s model. You can read about it here.
It’s a particularly powerful model for when your team members’ get stuck in developing a new skill, behavior or mindset, because it helps you to target what aspect of the development model has become the constraint and then provides practical tips on how to get that constraint unstuck.
This concept ties back to last week’s reflection. Make sure to focus them on a development area that moves the needle for your organization / team’s overarching goals versus a generic leadership skill. In other words, don’t have them work on improving their three-point shot when what you need is better perimeter defense.
I describe these 3 motives in more detail here. For another lens on how to think about your team’s motivation, consider how you can connect their “one thing” to some of the principles of self-determination theory.
As I’ve alluded to in “Goals with Soul,” unlocking motivation has both conscious and unconscious components to it. What I’m focused on here are the more conscious elements of motivation. What’s often below the surface (particularly in areas that are hard to change) are competing commitments that actually incentivize and get in the way of change. In these situations, motivation and awareness go hand in hand. You have to both help bring awareness to the competing commitments and then get them to agree to prove or disprove the assumptions that underpin those commitments.