What are you modelling?

Some of you will know that in my younger days I spent quite a few years in the Army Reserve. Now, in the Army, the Navy, or the Air Force for that matter, if you send out mixed signals, the consequences can be dire.

But what impact does a mixed signal have in the workplace and how does it come about?

Well, it’s all to do with EMIT again. This time it’s the “M” in EMIT that I’m referring to, and no, the “M” does not stand for “mixed.”  

If you were to phone a professional, multinational organisation and you couldn’t leave a message because, “I’m sorry, that person’s mailbox is full,” or you left a message (or maybe several) but no one ever returned your call, you wouldn’t call that great customer service, would you?  

What if you were the manager of these obviously unreliable people? “I’d be having a serious conversation with them,” you might be inclined to say…..or would you? Let’s take a look at the letter “M” in more detail.

M is for MODEL: 

You see, behaviour like I’ve described above is usually “modelled” by someone in a position of influence. That is, the “unreliable” staff invariably simply copy behaviours they witness in the office, day in, day out.  Their influential role-model sets the example, nearly always unconsciously, for them and all they do, is what human beings naturally do, they emulate that unconscious behaviour.  

The only time behaviour like this gets flagged, is when someone further up the food chain slides into the picture. Often it’s because that bigger boss has received a complaint from a customer who, out of exasperation, went to the top to get heard.  

You can’t believe your staff would treat customers so poorly! So you take them to task over the complaint, or perhaps you go so far as to issue a warning; all the time completely oblivious to the fact that you model this very same behaviour on a daily basis.  

You can tell your staff, until you’re blue in the face, to do what you say…but, I can tell you right now, they won’t change. They’ll continue to do what you do: because you’re sending them mixed signals. Your own behaviour sends one signal, but your words transmit another. And we all know the adage that actions speak louder than words!

So look around you with fresh eyes. Try to become aware of behaviours, you are modelling, that are sending mixed signals. Poor behaviour in the workplace always stems from YOU… and one of the four components of EMIT. The first two, Enable and Model, are nearly always unconscious behaviours. Next time we’ll look at the first of the conscious behaviours that contribute to poor workforce behaviour.