The June 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review contained a brief note by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman titled “10 Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders“. The authors, who analyzed 360-degree feedback, identified the following 10 most common shortcomings of ineffective leaders. The worst leaders:

1. Lacked energy and enthusiasm;
2. Accepted their own mediocre performance;
3. Lacked clear vision and direction;
4. Had poor judgment;
5. Did not collaborate;
6. Did not walk the talk;
7. Resisted new ideas;
8. Did not learn from mistakes;
9. Lacked interpersonal skills; and
10. Failed to develop others.

The list sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Zenger and Folkman admit that the flaws seem obvious ones that any leader would try to fix. But they found that ineffective leaders were often unaware of their flaws. The authors suggest that leaders need to take a hard look at themselves and should seek candid feedback on their performance. I believe that simple awareness of what constitutes effective leadership behaviors and how one is performing on them may not be adequate for improvement. In this article, I suggest an intervention that might work for you.

Specifically, I focus on the following:

• The knowing-doing gap;
• Closing the knowing-doing gap;
• Goal-setting as a simple intervention;
• The power of goal-setting;
• Preventing relapse with email reminders to yourself; and
• Concluding remarks.

The knowing-doing gap
There is often a big gap between knowledge of something and translating that knowledge into action. This is the classic knowing-doing gap. We often read something or attend training sessions and resolve to change our behavior but quite often there is little action and we lapse into our old behaviors. This relapse is often caused by time pressures, peer pressure, anxiety over one’s capabilities, and, sometimes, by joyful circumstances (e.g., feelings that things are going well).

Closing the knowing-doing gap
A field of research has emerged to address the training transfer issue. It focuses on finding ways to enable positive transfer of concepts from training to action and prevent relapse to old behaviors. This field provides many suggestions that focus on trainee characteristics, training design, and the work environment to improve training transfer. I am going to focus on something that is under the control of an individual interested in changing her/his leadership behaviors.

Specifically, my goal is to suggest an intervention that can be used by someone who has either acquired new leadership knowledge from a book or undergone some sort of leadership training to bring about a change in her/his leadership behaviors. This intervention should apply equally well to someone who is leading a virtual team or a traditional team. Moreover, I expect this intervention to apply equally well to leadership knowledge or tips acquired from different sources. As long as one is trying to apply behaviorally oriented leadership knowledge or tips, the following intervention should work.

Goal-setting as a simple intervention
A simple intervention that research has shown to work is goal setting (see an example of such research that appeared in the Academy of Management Journal). Goal setting involves creating a list of desirable leadership behaviors, setting targets for those behaviors (e.g., 5 times per week), and monitoring progress towards achieving those targets. When creating a list of desirable behaviors, make sure that the behaviors are specific, actionable behaviors rather than general behaviors. For instance, corresponding to the general behavior of showing energy and enthusiasm, some specific behaviors would be to ‘show willingness to take on additional responsibilities,’ ‘come in early to work,’ or ‘finish the work assigned to me before others remind me to.’ You will have to consider your unique situation to translate the desirable leadership behaviors into specific actions.

You will find it useful to share your list and targets with someone you trust (e.g., your peer or superior). Such sharing builds public commitment to your goals. To strengthen this commitment, also consider sharing how well you are achieving your targets with them.

How do you set targets? During the first week or two, monitor opportunities for displaying desirable behaviors. Make a note of their frequencies. As a first pass, the frequencies of opportunities you experience could be used as targets.You don’t have to get your targets right the first time. Give yourself the latitude to adjust the targets to make sure that you don’t exhaust yourself and have the energy to perform well.

The power of goal-setting
The power of goal setting has also been shown in areas other than management. A recent Wired magazine article discusses the use of goal setting in the Nike+ system. This system  combines the sensor in a runner’s Nike shoe with an iPod and allows the runner to enter the target for a run and track her/his performance. The runner’s goal and performance data is then uploaded to NikePlus.com, which adds the current information to the history of all of the runner’s runs. According to the article, analysis of this data has revealed that “If someone uploads only a couple of runs to the site, they might just be trying it out. But once they hit five runs, they’re massively more likely to keep running and uploading data. At five runs, they’ve gotten hooked on what their data tells them about themselves.”

I believe the Nike+ story has an important implication for someone trying to change one’s leadership behavior: be patient, especially with yourself. Don’t give up in face of the effort that may be required upfront. Once you taste some success, it will feed on itself to motivate you even more to change your behavior.

Preventing relapse with email reminders to yourself
There is always a danger of relapse to one’s old behaviors. Researchers and practitioners often suggest an elaborate relapse prevention program focusing on relapse awareness, identification of situations that may cause relapse, and development of coping responses (see example). While such a program can be effective, especially when combined with goal-setting, I suggest that you first try something simpler: set up an email alert system reminding you of the most important goals you have set for yourself as part of the goal-setting intervention. One way to do that would be to set up weekly or twice-weekly events on Google Calendar with email reminders sent to you just prior to those events. It is possible for you to set up Google calendar events in such a way that the reminders alert you about your most critical goals.

The efficacy of reminder emails in changing people’s behaviors was demonstrated in a recently published study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. As part of this study, individuals signed up for a 16-week, individually tailored e-mail program to improve their health-related behaviors. When these individuals received weekly email reminders that alerted them about their goals (e.g., go for a walk during a coffee break), they were more likely to engage in healthy behaviors than individuals in the control group who did not sign up for the program. For a simple description of this study, read this Time Magazine article.

Concluding remarks
We are often inspired by a leadership book, article, or training program to change our leadership behaviors. But we find it challenging to translate our inspiration into change in behaviors. We all face this challenge. I have outlined a set of steps that you could take to close the knowing-doing gap and be a more effective leader.