Chapter Eight – Metamorphosis

The Third Discovery: A Learning Agenda

This discovery is about creating a specific learning plan that will move you from your real self to your ideal self. They talk about the difference between performance objectives at work and learning objectives. Most companies require the former. Performance objectives focus on achieving specific successes, so we are put in a position of having to prove ourselves. This can make people defensive. A learning objective focuses on the path to change that will ultimately result in success. This is not only results in less defensiveness, but it is intrinsically motivating because success at work comes and goes, but learning is something no one can ever take from you.

They discuss the involvement of the pre-frontal cortex in mental preparation for a task. When we have time to prepare, this area is engaged and our performance is generally higher. When we are given a task without any prep time, this area does not register any engagement and performance is generally lower. So, when learning a new skill, taking time to mentally prepare for how you will accomplish it (rehearsing a board meeting presentation, etc.) generally helps in the execution.

They give a good case study/example of a leader who had a good approach to “practicing” his new way to leading. He was the CEO of a consulting firm and decided to look at his own company as one of his clients. Each day, he would write a consulting memo to himself as he would for a client, identifying what he’s seen and what needs to happen.

They spend a couple of pages talking about creating an outline of specific, measurable goals and they refer to social science research which tells us that objectives are met more often when the goals are laid out this way. I know that I personally do much better with a to-do list. It helps motivate me to break my day or week down into smaller, more manageable chunks and there’s a real sense of accomplishment each time you check something off (which provides mental and emotional motivation to keep going down the list).

They also talk about practicality. You need to either actively carve out time in your week to work on these specific measurable goals, or find ways to incorporate them into your existing schedule. They gave one example of someone who was a command style leader and wanted to be more of a coach. He decided he would coach his daughters soccer team, since spending time with her was already a time commitment/priority that existed in his life. Another leader wanted to be a more engaging speaker so she decided that all future team meetings would be venues for her to get up in front of the group an deliver work items in a presentation format.

Lastly, with this step they talk about the way people learn differently. Specifically, they reference Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory. Most people learn best by either concrete experience, reflecting, model building, or trial and error. While most people are better at one of these, a truly successful leader can master at least a couple.

The Fourth Discovery: Reconfiguring the Brain

This step is about enacting your learning plan by reconfiguring your brain (ie practicing). They talk about the fact that we are subtly programmed early in life to (in this example) lead a certain way. The scaffolding of what know to be effective leadership is provided for us by our teachers, our parents and our early career bosses. They lay down the brain circuitry for leadership habits. Each time we see such an example it helps to further cement the brain circuitry in that pattern. We call this implicit learning, as opposed to explicit learning which is more typical of classroom or text book learning. To change this brain circuitry takes time and practice. The more varied settings you can practice it in, the more ‘sticky’ the learning will be. They bring up a great example of the importance of practice. World class athletes spend A LOT more time practicing than they do actually performing. Executives often spend no time practicing behaviors, instead spending all their time performing.

Some of the high level tools they suggest are stealth learning (engaging in activities that allow you the opportunity to learn, but are not focused on the learning…such as the soccer dad example). Another is the idea of mental rehearsal, referred to in the third discovery. They talk about people who are able to move beyond changing brain chemistry to the point of changing their physiology through rehearsal (lowering your blood pressure, heart rate, slow your breathing, etc.).

The Fifth Discovery: The Power of Relationships

The focus here is on the importance of building a network of support to sustain the learning and change. They bring up the notion that learning (for leadership or anything else) works best in an environment where people feel safe, but not safe enough that they don’t feel challenged. When this optimal level of brain arousal between relaxation and stimulation is reaching, transformative change can occur.

They suggest a number of support networks, but they spend a little time discussing the value of having an executive coach. Executive coaches help provide a sounding board for senior leaders. Since many suffer from the aforementioned CEO disease, they often rely on these coaches to give them honest, objective feedback about their performance. Truly effective coaches look at your performance on three levels: 1) Individual (what’s going on with you?) 2) Team level (what’s going on with your direct team?) and 3) the Organizational level (how the organization either benefitting or hurting from your behaviors.

They give an example of one CEO who shared his objectives and learning plan with the entire organization so they could watch his progress and help to keep him accountable. This worked very well and his division of the company grew by record numbers. This, according to the authors, was due to the fact that not only did others hold him accountable, but they began to emulate his behavior, enacting changes in themselves at all levels of the organization.