Good Habits Make Good Managers

Four tips from psychology to create a coaching culture

For the past several years, the SAP SuccessFactors Human Capital Management (HCM) Research team has been conducting research on the topic of continuous performance management.

A key finding from this research is that shifting to a more continuous method of performance management is as much about changing people’s mindsets as it is changing actual processes. The reason many performance management transformations fail is because managers and employees are unable to abandon their old habits and adopt new patterns of behavior.

Changing people’s habits is far easier said than done. Research suggests it can take anywhere between 18 and 254 days for people to form a new habit, with a median time of 66 days. That’s more than three times the common myth that it takes “21 days to make a habit.”

Fortunately, research has identified several strategies companies can leverage to help managers and employees abandon old, ineffective habits and adopt new, more impactful ones. Four of these strategies were nicely summarized in a study that explored the process of habit formation in new gym members. The same strategies that work for improving exercise routines can be applied to creating healthy coaching habits.

Participants who exercised in a consistent manner, such as at the same time every day, were more likely to form a habit of exercising compared to participants who did not follow a set pattern or schedule.

This finding speaks to the value of scheduling regular coaching and feedback sessions with employees. Having these meetings may feel awkward at first, but the more consistently they occur the less uncomfortable and more natural they will become. It may be useful to provide managers and employees with suggested guidelines around how often they should be engaging in coaching conversations. It is also important to remember that newly adopted behaviors will not become ingrained overnight. Human resources leaders should encourage and monitor the regular occurrence of coaching conversations over time, even after the initial excitement of shifting to more continuous performance management has faded.

Participants who thought it would be difficult to exercise on a regular basis were less likely to make a habit out of exercising.

Note the emphasis on perception. If people think something is easy to do, they are more likely to do it. The key is making sure people do not view it as something that is inherently hard to do. Talking with employees about their performance and development may not seem like a major challenge, but many managers may view it as “yet another thing I have to keep track of and cram into my schedule.” Fortunately, technology can help managers remember to have coaching conversations by providing email notifications and other system reminders. Technology can also help managers keep track of employees’ progress on activities and achievements as well as document relevant questions and previous discussion topics. By reducing some of the administrative burden associated with continuous performance management, managers may feel less overwhelmed by the prospect of holding regular coaching conversations with employees.

People who viewed exercising as an enjoyable activity were more likely to make exercising a long-term habit.

It is not surprising that it is easier to build habits around things we feel comfortable doing. One of the challenges associated with continuous performance management is that many managers do not have knowledge or confidence in their coaching skills. Managers may feel intimidated by the prospect of engaging in coaching conversations or interpret providing employees with feedback as being more difficult or complicated than it needs to be. This is why it is so critical to train managers on what effective coaching behaviors look like and how to provide effective feedback to employees. The more information managers have about the right and wrong ways to engage in ongoing coaching conversations, the more comfortable they will be to carry them out. Ensure managers understand the sorts of topics and questions coaching conversations should focus on and how these conversations differ from the other conversations they may already be having with employees, such as check-ins or development-planning conversations. Provide managers with simple best practices or feedback ‘dos and don’ts’ so that they feel comfortable and confident when entering into a coaching conversation with employees.

Participants who perceived exercising to be associated with rewards—both internal and external—were more likely to maintain an exercise habit than participants who did not associate exercising with reward.

We often heard from customers that the motivation to engage in coaching conversations seemed to plateau over time. Managers showed excitement early on but tended to revert to their old habits. One of the best ways to motivate employees to change their behaviors is to ensure they see a connection between these behaviors and their personal career goals. This is why it is important for companies to tie continuous performance management activities with other organizational talent management decisions, for example, tracking and rewarding managers based on their commitment to actively coaching and developing employees.

We often compare implementing continuous performance management to changing one’s health habits. It is one thing to recognize that a healthy diet and exercise are important or to buy vegetables and join a gym – it is another to live a healthy lifestyle over time. The same can be said for continuous performance management. Having the right knowledge, training, and tools is important, but these things only add value if managers and employees change their old habits and adopt new patterns of behavior. These four tips can serve as a starting point to help companies break the chain of habit and enable effective coaching behaviors in their organization.

To learn more, check out Transforming Performance Management: 15 lessons from 10 years of customer engagements, or listen to this podcast to dig into the details about why employees want performance management to work and what organizations and leaders can do to make it better.