Metaprograms; the categories we use and how they drive our behaviours

Last week in Evolved Leader we dipped our toe into metaprograms, this week we are following up with categories.

When I heard Kathy from Fire Up talk about categories it immediately hit home with me.

In my workshops I often hear people use terms that refer to unconscious categories, they just don’t realise that is what they are doing.

Categories is our unconscious bias, and a way of simplifying people or situations around us that help us to manage our experiences.  Those behaviours then become a driver of our subsequent behaviours, most of these are positive but some can have a negative impact.

Let’s dive into what categories are. 

Imagine you have a peer that has a habit of throwing blame around and people under the bus.  Or you have a team member that constantly misses deadlines no matter how often you follow up a task or information you need.  These people may be put into a low trust category (I think of it as the low trust bucket).  Now think of an example in your life where trust is low.  Reflecting on this, what behaviours do you engage in when you are around the people in this category?  Are you guarded in what you share or say?  Do you stay relatively quiet and prefer to sit in the background or control the narrative?  What do these behaviours look like for you?

Now imagine you are about to take on a big project.  You have some people in your team you consider to be top performers, and some that are not, what is the difference in how these people are treated, communicated with or managed?  Chances are these behaviours are being driven by your internal categories.

Where Categories are Useful:

The main area I hear categories being used is when it comes to performance management.  Categories are generally openly used for processes such as performance reviews, and can be useful to know where members of your team are currently and what support they need.  For example, you may use categories like not meeting, meeting or exceeding expectations, provided these are applied consistently they can be quite useful in simplifying a process.

Where categories can start to undermine these processes is when internally we classify people in the not meeting expectations with phrases or terms like dead wood, lazy, not going to cut it or don’t rate them.  These are not helpful categories and can bring about behaviours that leaves that person languishing in that space, as opposed to supporting them to work their way above where they are now.  (On a side note if you have people you think of in this category, they have been there for a while and have been left to languish, that reflects on the leader that is allowing that to happen, not the person!)

Once you place someone into a certain box its important to reflect on your behaviours that are aligned with that.  Are low performers overlooked for opportunities for mentoring or one on one training, are they in a role that allows them to play to their strengths, do they have opportunities to improve, is there a conscious effort to get them out of that category?  Or once categorised are they stuck there having to prove themselves above and beyond for an extended period of time in order to break out?  (If this is you check out last weeks Evolved Leader on Metaprograms, number 5 convincer, you can find it here https://www.leadwithpurpose.com.au/blog/metaprograms_challenge_your_thinking)

A leader that was in one of my programs recognised that a certain operator was rated as not having initiative, they were seen as wanting someone to hold their hand as soon as things got hard and they didn’t want to make decisions and solve problems.  Everyone knew it except the person.  No-one was willing to have the hard chat and actually tell them.  Without the clear feedback on what was really going on they were stuck in that category, being moved around from work area to work area, not a great place to be.  In recognising this, there was only one solution, as uncomfortable as it may be, have the conversation and give the person an opportunity to develop confidence in solving their own problems (and break free from the box they are stuck in).

Once you become aware of your categories what can you do?

• Knowledge creates awareness; tune into recognising where categories are being used by yourself and others,
• Listen carefully, what language is being used without really noticing the impact of that language? Terms that may be commonly used can invoke unspoken rules around associated behaviours,
• Understand your behaviours that then come into play, are they useful? Can you challenge them and replace them with a different approach?

I have included a Categories worksheet you can get a copy of here, once you recognise your categories, reflect on the behaviours they are driving and where you can make changes to ensure no-one in your team is stuck in a box that doesn’t serve them or you as the leader.