Posted on October 22, 2015

When launching training sessions, it is not uncommon for some disgruntled participants to proclaim, with distrust, that they are not expecting anything from the program and that they are present because they are constrained by their hierarchy.
During their first coaching interview, beneficiaries admit – with some discomfort – not to know at all the objectives of these accompaniments … yet initiated by their managers.

There are leaders who are convinced that, given their age, nothing can change them.
Finally, we mention the case of this production manager who refused to engage in a coaching advised by his colleague DRH for fear of suggesting that he could recognize certain personal incompetence.

Our experience of supporting the development of men and organizations leads us to hypothesize that certain profiles are more resistant to personal development than others.
This paper aims to nurture the debate and offer our recommendations on the following questions:
• Why are certain profiles kept away from personal development?
• How to recognize them? • How can the access of these “imprisoned” populations to new perspectives be promoted?

It should be remembered that by developing person 1 we mean:
1. developing strategic skills such as analytical skills, vision, planning, problem solving, priority management, value for money, etc.

AND

2. the development of personal skills such as constructive communication, the pragmatic exploitation of emotions, leadership, the art of management, the quality of its impact on others, etc.

Who are they ? Why these reluctance?

We identify two profiles that are conducive to this resistance to personal development.
1. The profile focused on the task manifests itself in a form of active resistance, one can easily recognize it through its “aggressive” form.
2. The profile focused on the search for security at all costs. Its form of passive resistance makes it more difficult to identify.

In essence, the first profile is based on a posture “no I do not want to! While the second is lost in a “I do not believe” deeply anchored.

Personal profiles excessively focused on the task.

These profiles give excessive priority to tasks in relation to people. At the extreme, these profiles lead people to focus on their own needs at the expense of those in the group and the organization. Although these approaches can sometimes produce short-term results, they are more commonly associated with stress, turnover, conflict and degrade organizations’ ability to solve problems, make effective decisions, and ensure satisfactory internal coordination. These models can not lead to optimizing the quality of products and services.
The main reasons for escaping personal development are:
• Denial (perfectionism, power and opposition).
Denial is part of the defensive strategies that these profiles deploy to protect themselves from a confrontation with their anguish of incompetence.
They do not care what others think. They are often heard saying that they “do not have the time” or that they “have no budgets” or that they “are there to produce results … and that’s it! “… this strategic skill is their strong point.

• Arrogance (power, competition and need for approval from others).
They are recognized through the feeling of superiority which seems to inhabit them. It is in this way that they are convinced that they are more competent, more skilled, and more prudent than most of their colleagues or prescribers.

• Paranoia (opposition, competition and avoidance).
The “paranoia” suspects its prescribers to organize a sneaky scheme to better be able to turn it or put it in a closet. He can not understand that he can be interested in him without Machiavellian thoughts. He is unable to grasp the outstretched hand. He is also unable to reach out to help others.

Personal profile overly focused on security needs.

These profiles seem to be dominated by feelings of helplessness, yet their behaviors often reveal feelings of frustration and anger. They feel a strong need to protect themselves from others and to defend themselves.
Their main sources of resistance to personal development are:
• Conformism.
The priority of the conformist is to hide behind his “normality”. So he keeps doing things the way they have always been done. His motivation is, above all, to obey the established rules and procedures to avoid getting noticed. A personal development approach, however, requires the mobilization of a certain courage. But, in accordance with this quotation from Napoleon: “One can not pretend to be courageous.”

• Avoidance or lack of self-confidence. 
Avoidance is a behavior of withdrawing from any potentially threatening situation, taking no risk. Paradoxically, it is the absence of (active) resistance that must put the chip in the ear of the prescriber and the accompanying person. Indeed, one must remain vigilant in the face of one of these favorite strategies of the dodge who consist in approving systematically, or too quickly, any proposal … to have peace.

• Defeatism (opposition).
The defeatist (“Naysayer”) condemns, criticizes and complains relentlessly. The defeatist sees a problem in every opportunity. It is distinguished by toxic pessimism which leads to constantly seeing the glass half empty. Defeatists are rather solitary beings, hard to impress. They have a special talent for contaminating others. They do not accept the criticism addressed to them. They know how to wait patiently for others to make decisions so that they can criticize and devalue them. Their added value lies in their ability to anticipate all sorts of risks. Expert profiles are often found in this category.

How to promote access to new perspectives?

1. Encourage “cash” and benevolent feedback from the prescriber.

4 Principles for Successful Cash and Caring Feedback
o Principle 1: The motives must remain constructive.
o Principle 2: The prescriber must communicate CONCRETE, APPRECIATIVE or neutral, PRECISE and DESCRIPTIVE.
o Principle 3: if relevant and useful do not censure negative feedback.
o Principle 4: The prescriber Assume.

2. Identify and accompany resistance.

The worst way to apprehend resistance is to respond to it by its own resistance. Raymond Devos formulates this opinion with wisdom and humor: “It is always wrong to try to be right in front of people who have every good reason to believe that they are not wrong! “.
On the contrary, resistances must be put at the service of all, contribute to the enrichment of ideas and the motivation of the protagonists, whether coaches, clients or prescribers. It is only by making you permeable to the influence of your interlocutor that you can drop any form of pleading without dropping your ideas. This attitude, which consists in influencing others by letting you influence, facilitates the conjugation of points of view. This allows you to bounce back on the ideas of the “resistant”, to show him your consideration, to project you into more and richer assumptions. You will also have the opportunity to “brainstorm” together and develop alternatives that none of you could have discovered alone.

3. Make small steps from clear but not too ambitious goals .

To accompany the transformation of men and organizations, consider the Gestalt OD approach, which is inspired by Arnold Beisser’s paradox of change: “a change appears when someone seeks to become what he is, he ceases to seek to become what he is not. ”
Agree on goals that pose reasonable challenges, that is, that allow for strong chances for sustainable success. The succession of successes provokes the insistence. Avoid goals that are based on the idea of ​​becoming someone else.

4. Provide psychological security

The conditions of change described by Edgar Schein’s inequality make the process of change strongly dependent on the pedagogy of the prescribers and in particular their ability to:
• Share their absolute belief that if nothing changes, then the organization and customer risk losing a lot. (Survival Anxiety)
• Gather around the solution that is developed to cross this risk. (reduction of learning anxiety)
• To gain the confidence of the beneficiaries on the relevance and the realism of the analysis which envisages an accompanying action. (reduction of learning anxiety)
• Keep beneficiaries away from the fear of not achieving it by presenting the accompanying actions associated with the implementation of this new way of doing things. (resources mobilized, training programs, coaching, assistance, support, support) (reduction of learning anxiety).
See also http://wp.me/p1Y9T3-5w

5. Emphasize the appreciative approach .

The behavior of a machine is different from that of a person. To evolve a human system, it is first necessary to learn to see it differently, with a new eye. The “mechanistic” approach to which we are accustomed is most often counterproductive when it comes to encouraging behavior change in your collaborator (collaborator).
En effet, en vous focalisant sur la description d’un problème, comme votre éducation académique vous y a habitué, vous choisissez, en réalité, de privilégier la description du pôle négatif du phénomène que vous avez ainsi choisi de commenter. Mais si vous déplorez ce problème, cela signifie que votre cerveau dispose, en comparaison, d’une figure à laquelle vous aspirez. L’œil nouveau, auquel l’approche appréciative fait appel, recommande au contraire d’insister sur cette figure idéale au lieu de se mobiliser sur la figure défaillante. Vous aurez, en effet, plus de chances de rencontrer une oreille attentive en disant : « Comment pourrais-je t’aider à mieux tenir tes engagements ? » plutôt que : « cette fois encore tu n’as pas tenu tes engagements !».

Prescribers: You are responsible for the skill growth of your teams. Teach your refractory colleagues to recognize what they know how to do well. Prefer positive figures.
You will thus favor the development of enriching prospects for these employees, disadvantaged by disabling profiles.
We can help you.