SCIENCE TRANSLATIONS
What is Human Behavior?
And why startup leaders need this knowledge
Over the past few decades, organizational leaders have realized that human behavior plays a significant role in a startup’s performance.
In fact, there is an entire academic discipline devoted to understanding the impact of human behavior at work: industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. I-O psychologists (like myself) systematically study how people behave in organizations and apply that knowledge to develop evidence-based (i.e., backed by scientific data) management practices. Think employee engagement surveys, hiring assessments, and training interventions.
What is human behavior?
I-O psychologists define behavior as reactions and responses (both actions and thinking processes) to stimuli. For example, If a professor asks a question in class, the student raises their hand to answer. The stimulus is the professor’s question. The student’s behavioral responses are raising the hand and thinking of an answer. Stimuli can be external or internal. External stimuli refer to things in the person’s environment, including the people around you. Internal stimuli refer to the psychological makeup of the person. For example, people have desires, needs, aspirations, tendencies, and preferences.
What are the benefits of understanding human behavior?
Understanding human behavior is crucial for founders because behavior is the foundation of startup performance. A startup’s performance is the sum of all of their employee’s job performance and job performance is the sum of a person’s behaviors directed at organizational goals. In other words, how people behave at work is directly related to how well they perform. Things like profits or turnover are just the outcomes of performance behaviors.
The differentiation between performance behaviors and performance outcomes is crucial. Leaders can influence how people behave, but they do not have the magical power to directly increase revenue whenever they want. Leaders do, however, have the power to shape the employee behaviors that underlie the development innovative products that will in turn create a new revenue stream. In this particular example, understanding the behaviors that underlie innovation can inform management practices and help leaders reach their revenue goals quicker. Below are a few examples of the performance behaviors and potential outcomes.
To sum, understanding human behavior can help you be a better leader and increase the likelihood of startup success. Below are just some of the positive outcomes that can come from learning about human behavior and using evidence-based practices from science.
- Improve productivity
- Enhance the quality of product
- Reduce turnover
- Develop leadership skills
- Develop people management skills
- Build a high-performing team
- Increase team effectiveness
- Increase employee engagement
- Strengthen stakeholder relationships
Conclusion
Startups cannot exist without people. What’s more, people can be a startup’s most significant asset or most significant liability. By learning about human behavior and its impact on work, you can enhance startup performance and accelerate startup growth.
This blog barely scratched the surface of what we know about human behavior. Stay tuned for follow-up blogs that discuss the roots of behavior, behavioral change, prediction of behavior, and group behavior. We will also introduce evidence-based practices you can implement yourself. In the meantime, read one of these books about human behavior approved by an I-O psychologist (i.e., me).
About Blackhawke Behavior Science
Want to learn more about building a strong entrepreneurial team and healthy organizational culture? Visit Blackhawke’s Medium publication, From I-O to IPO, or www.blackhawke.io and get social with us on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, or Twitter!
