„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

advantageous to attribute the success to ability and effort (effort often being considered
a stable attribution in cases of success). By doing this, the person increases his or her
confidence in his or her ability to be successful in future attempts at similar tasks. If one
attributes success to luck—an unstable attribution—one will not increase his or her
expectation of success. In addition, attributing success to luck may indicate a lack of
confidence in one’s ability. Even though a person has succeeded, he or she may not
persist if he or she fails in future attempts at the task. Success does not necessarily
follow success.
After failure, it is more advantageous to attribute the failure to unstable causes such
as a lack of effort or the use of an ineffective strategy. Although strategy is not one of
the commonly used attributions, it can be particularly effective if the failure was
preceded by a large expenditure of effort. This is because there is a perceived inverse or
compensatory relationship between effort and ability.
For example, if a person is working hard to accomplish the same level of success as
another person who appears to be expending little effort, the first person probably will
assume that he or she has less ability than the other person. This is particularly critical in
cases of failure. If a person works as hard or harder than others and still fails while the
others are succeeding, the person often will be left with no other explanation than lack
of ability. Thus, the person probably will not persist in an attempt to accomplish the
task. However, by attributing failure to the use of an ineffective strategy, the person is
more likely to persist.
There usually are many different ways to accomplish a task. Therefore, explaining
failure as the use of an ineffective strategy is often correct as well as advantageous. Both
explanations—lack of effort and the use of an ineffective strategy—will preserve a
person’s perception of his or her ability and provide the person with the option of either
putting forth more effort or finding and using a different strategy in the next attempt.
Both attributions will increase persistence.
Applications to the Managerial Coaching Process
Even when subordinates’ objectives are clearly defined and subordinates are committed
to achieving them, they may not persist in their attempts to accomplish those objectives.
In many cases, it is not the subordinates’ lack of commitment but their lack of
confidence in their abilities in relation to the objective that determines whether they will
initially attempt it and, if they fail, whether they will persist and make future attempts.
From a coaching perspective, it is important to accurately assess the abilities and
efforts (including past effort as reflected in knowledge, skills, and experience) of
subordinates and, when they fail or fail to try, to guide them toward additional training,
effort, or strategies in order to help them persist in achieving their objectives.
Some subordinates may tend to explain their successes or failures in
disadvantageous ways. A potentially effective motivational strategy would be to identify
the subordinates’ explanations for successes or failures and to suggest more
advantageous causes. It has been demonstrated that simply suggesting more appropriate
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer ❚❘ 297