ing the new behaviors. The challenge
was breaking a habitual routine.
Teaching
micro-actions
fills a gap in the
process
of LD that is often overlooked
when focusing on
content
.
Here are
12 examples of micro-actions
:
•
Adjusting posture
in order to engage
more effectively in a meeting
•
Maintaining eye contact
in conversa-
tion to display empathy
•
Smiling
to be a
more optimistic
leader
•
Asking a question
instead of making a
statement to promote communication
•
Waiting three seconds
before respond-
ing to improve listening
•
Focusing on the sound
of someone’s
voice to engage
•
Intentionally adjusting hands
to
become a more polished presenter
•
Making an appreciative statement
to
unlock new types of conver-
sations
•
Paraphrasing someone
you
are listening to practice social
intelligence
•
Greeting someone
you nor-
mally do not greet to be a
more inclusive leader
•
Adjusting your tone of voice
to be more intentional
•
Making an empathic state-
ment
to support your team
Try mindfully observing all that
happens in five-second intervals during
your work interactions
. Think of all of
the little choices you make in a day’s
interactions. Now reflect on all the
small
choice points
t
hat aren’t obvious since
they’re made automatically. At work,
they may include going out of your
way to speak with someone, smiling at
a colleague, or asking a question in a
meeting to invite responses. Each
choice can be seen as a
micro-action
.
Despite the simplicity of
micro-action
,
people struggle with the unintentional
routine of unwanted behaviors. Chang-
ing behavior is very different from un-
derstanding what great leadership is.
Practice Micro-Actions
Take five steps to practice
micro-actions
:
1. Observe yourself in thinner slices
of time during interactions.
Since this is
a new practice, slow down and discov-
er choices in bits of time.
2. Identify scenarios for new actions.
Pay attention to
dominant routines
at work.
What
micro actions
do you tend to use?
For instance, do you choose to speak or
withhold your voice? Which facial
expressions do you use most often?
What is the volume of your voice?
Which gestures do you tend to use? In
addition to interactions in which you
want change, also consider your work
Micro-actions
W
E ARE CREATURES
of habit. Often,
leadership habits are reinforced
within a culture. Helping leaders
change behaviors is a primary goal of
executive education (EE). When leaders
benefit from EE programs, they reflect
on new insights and hold their crafted
action plans near. The next week, how-
ever, work pressure reveals its power,
pulling leaders back into familiar routines.
Seeing this, we believe that
breaking
habits is the primary lever to practicing
new leadership skills.
While you need to
have a thoughtful leader development
(LD) action plan, without a way to
break habitual routines, your action
plans quickly lose value.
Breaking routines in order to prac-
tice new behaviors requires a concen-
trated and strategic action,
small
enough to be implemented in any sce-
nario. This
micro-action
allows a break
in routine long enough to then practice
desired new behaviors. We’ve used
micro-actions
with many leaders, and
this strategy consistently works, result-
ing in positive feedback. In a field that
is heavier on
what great leaders do
, than
how you can do it
, there’s something to
be said for
the power of simplicity.
Micro-actions are small acts deliv-
ered in no more than five seconds.
Since
they are smaller in size,
micro-actions
express minimal context. For example,
asking a question after a comment to
gauge somebody’s interest is a neutral
micro-action. The observer, however,
embeds that
micro-action
in a context of
personality, work style, relationship,
project, team, culture, and history.
During one EE program, a leader
struggled to practice new skills in a
role-play. He would fidget with his
hands and pen. After some coaching,
the
micro-action
that enabled him to
change these behaviors was to put his
hands one over the other in his lap.
The discomfort of
being intentional
with
his hands anchored him in an
intention-
al moment
. This removed him from his
routine, and he could focus on practic-
routines and the individuals you pass
by or share space with in limited
frames of time.
A
micro-action
routine normally
involves multiple
micro-actions
at play.
For example, someone may speak with
a particular person, in a particular way,
about a particular topic, with multiple
gestures displayed. List all
micro-actions
.
3. Update your micro-actions.
Brain-
storm alternative
micro-actions
that will
help you change your routine. List the
micro-actions
. For example, “I can speak
more loudly, about x topic, while soft-
ening my facial expression, and follow
with an
open-ended question
.”
4. Determine one or two new micro-
actions
to intentionally engage. As a
start, which of the updated
micro-actions
would create the biggest win?
5. Put it into practice.
Visualize how you would
like to display
micro-actions
in
a scenario. Next, try out the
micro-actions
in real time and
reflect on whether or not you
succeed. It’s useful to track
new
micro-actions
in this
small-scale approach
to change.
While rehearsing scenar-
ios is always useful when
practicing new behaviors,
using inten-
tional micro-actions enables leaders to
practice new skills any time
. Most
micro-actions
benefiting a leader in one
environment would likely provide ben-
efit in another. And, by breaking inter-
actions down into bits of time, you
increase opportunities for practice—
there are 12 five-second options for micro-
actions in a minute
. Considering that
routine meetings can go longer than an
hour, you have many opportunities to
engage in new behaviors each day. This
shift in perspective can be profound.
Continuous practice, naturally, makes
the desired
micro-action
and resulting
behaviors easier to engage in.
Mindfully Move to Action
By increasing intentionality of micro-
actions, you can mindfully move to
action. Breaking behavioral habits is
basic to LD. So when you think of how
you’ve been neglecting your leadership
action plan, start with a
micro-action
. It
is actionable, and breaks your habits so
you can purposefully interact. Inten-
tionally lead yourself, and you’ll be
even better at leading others.
LE
Bauback Yeganeh, Ph.D., is principal of Everidian, an organiza-
tional effectiveness firm. Visit
or email
Darren Good, Ph.D., is an Asst. Professor at
the Graziado School of Business and Management, Pepperdine
University. Email darren
ACTION: Practice Micro-actions in leadership.
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
M a r c h 2 0 1 2
1 5
LEADERSHIP
MICRO
-
ACTIONS
by Bauback Yeganeh and Darren Good
Th e y hav e ma c ro - impa c t .
