By Lauren DeClaire, M.A., BCBA

A lot of times when someone hears the words “behavior analysis” or “ABA,” their mind often shifts to “Autism.” Very few people realize that ABA can be applied to other areas of your life. One major area of your life, where you spend 90% of your day, includes the workplace.

Within a workplace, there is often little to no basic understanding of the principles of behavior that influence our daily routines. Many managers within companies oversee a large group of people and are responsible for the behaviors those people engage in. However, if there is a lack of reinforcement contingencies within the workplace, a manager may not always get the results they want. It can be difficult to implement and maintain performance management systems across the whole organization.

When it comes to managing an organization and people working within the various systems, there is no better way than through the implementation of performance management strategies. Performance management (PM) involves the addition or changing of contingencies to either increase or maintain a specific set of complex behaviors. Reinforcement contingencies are essential to keep a behavior going. But many managers or companies often use antecedent strategies to do so. Antecedent strategies may get the behavior going for a brief period of time, but that will most likely die out if the desired behavior is not intermittently reinforced.

Here are some techniques to try to help yourself become a better manager or leader:

1. Be proactive- Be present within an employee’s daily activities. This way you are there to observe behavior, provide coaching/training and reinforce desired behaviors as you see them occur
2. Feedback- For undesired behaviors it is important to provide corrective feedback in a professional manner. A good manager will give specific examples of the behaviors they want to see improved and will give them ideas and tools on HOW they can improve it.
3. Reinforce- Be sure to reinforce every instance of desired behaviors when you see it. You can do so with social praise, approval and attention. Eventually you can reinforce with more tangible materials such as gift cards, bonuses etc.
4. Training- Are you not getting the desired results but have employees engaging in all of the right behaviors? If your employees are engaging in all of the right behaviors but your results aren’t quite where you want them to be, then you may be specifying the wrong behaviors. You’ll want to ensure the behaviors you are training are in line with the goals of the job, process and your organizational outputs

Managers do not always have a specific outline on how to manage large groups of people. They are often put into a position solely because they are good at their job. However, they may have little or no managing experience. That is why it is important for companies to provide their managers with training on the basic principles of human behavior. After all, they will be managing human behavior as they manage the people working underneath them. Applying basic principles of ABA helps make for better managers. Having an effective manager can help to increase employee engagement. And employee engagement can be highly correlated to better financial outcomes and an overall healthier, more productive working environment for everyone.