Using Fogg's model for leadership development: motivation, ability and prompts
In January this year I published How We Talk About Leadership, a book sharing the research I performed with digital talent around the world in all levels of leadership, from those who are new to leading all the way to c-suite executives and business owners . There are tools and guides in the book to prompt organisations to ask if they are adequately supporting their emerging and existing leaders as they try their best to evolve into the best leaders they can be.
There are other well-established behavioural models that help us to understand what it takes for people to develop new behaviours. Dr. BJ Fogg created a model for behavioural change which I believe applies to leadership development too. His model shows that behaviour change is caused by motivation, ability, and a prompt converging at the same moment (B=MAP).
So, the premise is simple - if you want to successfully prompt a change in behaviour, the person needs to be as motivated as possible and what you are asking them to do needs to be as easy as possible.
This model is useful for user experience designers who are trying to prompt a range of new behaviours in their audience; anything from changing a user’s approach to their healthcare to simply motivating users to try a new product.
When it comes to pursuing leadership, so many people also miss the motivation, ability and prompts they need to make the behavioural changes they need to become a leader.
Motivation
Do they think leadership will be more pleasureable than painful?
Are they emotionally motivated by their hopes or do they fear the consequences of becoming a leader?
Do they think they will belong or be socially rejected if they pursue leadership?
Ability
Will they have the time to invest in becoming a leader?
Will they have the money to invest in training?
Will they be able to put in the physical and/or mental effort to become a leader?
Will they be socially supported to make these changes?
Will their routine allow them to develop?
Prompt
If their motivation is low, is there something that would spark their interest?
If their ability to develop is low, is there a way to make it quicker/cheaper/easier etc to develop?
If their motivation and ability is there, do they also receive signals or reminders to act?
When you look at the list above, you can see why so many worthy people without resources or self-belief don’t learn to lead.
Sometimes their motivation isn’t there because they have convinced themselves they have to be a certain type of person or demographic to be a leader and that belief is reinforced when there isn’t anyone like them in leadership. Sometimes their ability to develop is blocked by the effort and time they need to develop, or limited access to training opportunities. Sometimes they also have no-one or nothing to prompt them into action.
So, see if you can use the Fogg model to quickly assess people’s ability to make the behavioural changes they need to develop their leadership abilities. Just don’t expect them to make unachievable changes for little reward and no prompting if you want them to be become leaders
Find out more about how creative people talk about leadership.
