Change And Delayed Gratification

"Aha. Time to Make a Change!"

I just met with what I thought was a former client. He called and said "I've got to talk with you about the assessment feedback you did with me (drum-roll) three years ago." He went on to say that he wants to explore some changes in his corporate career path and couldn't get our conversation out of his head since our original meeting. Fooled me.

If you're a manager, coach, or freelancer who gets a lot of satisfaction from seeing people develop, then delayed gratification is part of the game. You can change lots of "things" in an instant--but not people. When it comes to making professional changes (which are really personal when you get honest about it), we need to allow time for people to put new information into context, validate it, try it out in some private way, and then figure out what and how much to change. Then they decide the when question.

For Managers

If you are managing a performance issue, then it's your job to set the deadline for when. If you're working with high potential people whose development plans include four or five different areas, be prepared to delay gratification for a while. And if the organization really needs one of those areas to boost its performance, let the person know when and why. It can help speed up the learning process or enable the individual to realize "that's not for me."

Either way, you've laid the groundwork for an honest response that's going to benefit both the company and the person.

Photo attribution: Grolier 1999 Encyclopedia Multimedia Edition

Comments

[Wally Bock]

I've always been a little wary when a coaching client expresses great enthusiasm and dives right into a change that I know will be difficult. I suspect that staying power may become an issue and that the same enthusiasm will be expressed for the next good idea. Organizationally and individually, I think we're often too quick to declare victory and move on.

[peter vajda]

My experience is that there's sometimes a chasm between enthusiasn and commitment, in thought, and enthusiasm and commitment, in deed. One does not automatically follow the other. Once the rubber meets the road, one sometimes very readily experiences the difference between the expectation, and the reality. Steadfastness, self-management, self-discipline, strength, will, clarity, and stick-to-it-ive-ness are sometimes not in such large supply at 9:00 Monday morning as one thought might be so at 9:00 Friday night.

[Mile High Pixie]

Boy, isn't that the truth--people take much longer to change than things, for sure. I've been finding (and experienced while learning and working for my boss) that people often have to be told more than once. Just as we have to be reminded that fruit is better for us than a chocolate chip muffin and going for a walk is better than sitting on the sofa, we have to be reminded that THIS is how we do our quality checks on drawings and THAT is how a watertight email should read, and so on. Success is a habit and a journey, not a quick skill or a destination.