Watching for Patterns: Understanding Human Behaviour
Order!
We are constantly in search of it.
Why, you may well ask?
Well, the order makes us comfortable.
Absence of order, arguably, causes stress.
Perhaps, to avoid this particular predicament, we tend to create order.
An order that helps give our lives some meaning.
Which is perhaps the most human thing of all.
For many years I used to wonder how engineers turned into successful copywriters; how doctors became successful sales directors.
What motivates them to make drastic, life-changing career decisions that seemingly makes no sense from the outside?
I think the answer lies in how strongly we are “wired”. More specifically, how strongly we are “hard-wired” or “soft-wired”!
Here's a fact for you:
Similar actions lead to similar outcomes.
That is, in essence, why we have habits!
To feel what we feel when we indulge in set behaviours.
Set “patterns”, if you will.
Over time, these patterns make us hard-wired.
At the same time, we are also constantly learning and re-learning.
That's because, in certain areas, we are “soft-wired”.
We allow ourselves to modify some behaviour.
And sometimes, it is this flexibility, that catapults us to greater heights.
Greater goals.
And achieving greater goals, once again, is an innately human want.
Patterns characterize us.
While behavioural scientists in the corporate world will define it as 'management styles'. And yes, the management styles will differ in different circumstances and different environments-with the same person!
How does this happen?
Do we have a Jekyll and Hyde in all of us?
This is what some would say is “Situational Leadership”!
These set of management styles in different circumstances leads to different patterns of behaviour.
Patterns come from our DNA. It's these little blocks (ok cells) that define us.
It's these blocks that decide if we change ourselves or not.
It defines how much we are “hard-wired” and how much we are “soft-wired”!
It defines as to how much we will compromise and where we will draw the line. And our willingness to change with the times based on our continuous learning.
As Executive Search consultants we have to understand the DNA of our candidates and the Hiring Manager.
In a meeting that can last half an hour to two hours, that would be an impossible task!
But we can surely attempt to recognize patterns in their behaviour. It is these patterns, that we deduce.
It is what makes our profession, for lack of a better term, add value to companies in helping their search for Talent.
As to what creates or what makes our DNA. Well, that's another story!
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