Bringing Out the Best in People

“Brining Out the Best in People” by Aubrey C. Daniels is a great book on leadership and management. Though it repeats the same message over and over again throughout the book, the underlying message is so powerful and valuable that it is worth repeating. And that message is that reinforcement is the answer to human behavior.

As human beings, everything we do essentially is a result of some form of reinforcement. We do things because of the consequences that come from them. What happens immediately after we do something will determine whether we will want to do it again or not. Simply stated by the author, “people do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it.”

Thus, good leaders effectively provide positive reinforcement as a natural consequence to the “right” actions. As humans, when an action changes our world in ways we like, we repeat it and conversely, when an action changes our world in ways we don’t like we stop it. Hence as leaders, we can produce positive consequences for positive behavior therefore inspiring and motivating others to repeat the behavior.

Knowing and understanding the power of reinforcement is so critical to success in any situation; because when we learn to reinforce the right way, we can help influence human behavior. So, when someone does something we want them to do, we must provide positive reinforcement immediately. For example, when a child washes the dishes, what do we do? Do we ignore it, do we tell them to now go clean their room, or do we give them a hug and whisper thank-you in their ear? How we respond as parents will likely determine whether our children will gladly repeat a behavior or not.

One trap that many of us fall into is what the author calls extinction--meaning we stop noticing good behavior, then we stop reinforcing it. When this happens, a positive behavior is changed and before we know it we are asking ourselves what happened?! The trick to ensuring a behavior will persist is to continuously reinforce it.

“Bringing Out the Best in People” is a great book that teaches that reinforcement is the key to unlocking the power of human behavior. As we learn to frequently and positively reinforce others, we will become more effective leaders and will have more positive results in all areas of our life.