How To Coach Your Team To Change Behaviour

The Development Pipeline and creating lasting growth

Mar 21, 2024

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The leaders I work with in my practice are all professionals; they possess capability and have succeeded by delivering at a high level to reach their current positions.

However, as they navigate a step up to the next level of leadership, what got them to where they are today won’t suffice to ensure success at this higher level of the game.

But understanding what and how to learn, in a way that creates long-term, lasting change can be challenging.

Behaviour change is a multifaceted problem, requiring specific active ingredients for success.

David Peterson, who until recently served as the Director of Executive Coaching & Leadership at Google; sadly passed away last year. I was fortunate enough to learn from him during a coaching programme of his in which I participated.

His framework, the Development Pipeline, outlines the five ‘necessary and sufficient conditions for change’ and is a valuable diagnostic tool to zero in on what matters most to the person in question. And it is a model I often use with clients to help guide our work.

David B. Peterson; A Behaviour-Based Approach to Executive Coaching; Evidence Based Coaching Handbook 2006

Each element of the pipeline will vary in size; constraining the amount of change a person can make. These narrower areas act as a bottleneck to future growth. Sometimes, constraints will be multiple.

For example, let’s take Jake, the senior manager who has high motivation to advance to a Director-level role, but lacking the ability to demonstrate leadership-level communication skills. Jake has received feedback indicating this is an area for improvement (high insight), yet it isn’t his natural strength (low capability) and he appears, on the surface, to lack the opportunity and accountability to practice in his current role (low real-world practice and accountability).

Jake attended a workshop to enhance his skills, yet whilst this has increased Jake’s knowledge, it has still not resulted in tangible change.

For effective learning and behaviour change to occur, all five of these conditions must be met. Therefore, Jake's lower level of capability and lack of real-world practice and accountability remain obstacles to his progress.

There are five questions that leaders can ask, either of themselves or when working with their team members:

Insight: Do you know what you need to develop?
Motivation: Are you willing to invest the time and energy?
Capability: Do you have the skills and knowledge required?
Real-world Practice: Do you create opportunities to use these skills?
Accountability: Do you feel accountability to yourself and/or others?

Delving deeper to uncover the true barriers to change provides the opportunity to identify tailored strategies for each unique situation, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all solution.

Below are five sets of questions that delve deeper into the pipeline, to help you - and those you lead - put future development plans into action.

Let’s get started.

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Insight:

What are others views of your impact, your strengths and your weaknesses?
What skills are most valued in your organisation?
What is necessary to be successful at the next level of leadership?

Motivation:

What is your first and most important goal?
What will give you the greatest satisfaction?
What will be possible in your role as a leader when you can do it?

Capability:

What is your current level of knowledge and skill? What are strengths and weaknesses?
What can be learned from those who are successful at doing what you want?
What additional skills will be helpful to you? What learning methods suit you best?

Real World Practice: