Management Leverage Blog

This morning I was thinking about how a vibrant network leverages a manager’s abilities, and came across recent academic article by Galvin, Balkundi, and Waldman*. What interested me most about the article was their focus on how leaders at all levels of management can even inspire those with whom they have no direct contact.

The best accomplish this through their direct reports. Offices everywhere are replete with gossip, stories, and other forms of ‘water cooler’ talk we generally view as a distraction to getting things done.

But this academic review discusses the possibility that water cooler talk may actually contribute to the positive image of the leader through employee surrogates or evangelical ambassadors. Sometimes, for instance, surrogates promote and defend their managers or even provide illustrative examples and anecdotes about their leadership skills.

Not unlike Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point or Seth Godin’s Ideavirus (not affiliate links), Galvin and his colleagues argue that the most influential surrogates have at least one of these three attributes:

• They are well-connected. They can relay information between a leader or manager and a quite distant follower or employee.

• They have prestige. Others seek their advice, mentoring, or friendship.

• They are peripherally connected. They relate well with those at the core of the group and have open channels to those on the outskirts.

Obviously, you may never venture to the outskirts of your directs’ network–you cannot be everywhere at once. But you may still need to inspire and motivate those you do not even know. Therein we find the leadership and management dilemma. This article by Galvin, Balkundi, and Waldman seems, however, to suggest a practical solution.

* Galvin, Balkundi, & Waldman (2010). Spreading the word: The role of surrogates in charismatic leadership processes. Academy of Management Review, 35(3), 477-494.

Photo credit: Thorsten Becker

“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed and she’s still there!” exclaimed Baby bear.

Just then, Goldilocks woke up and saw the three bears. “Sorry for the intrusion,” she said, “but I needed a little rest after eating all that porridge.”

Unable to resist the power of the magic word ‘because’, the bears apologized for waking her and quietly closed the door.

Or how about this one…

“We will wait for until Wednesday for BP to again attempt to stop the oil that is flowing into the gulf, because they are ultimately responsible for this disaster”.

Maybe the story about Goldilocks doesn’t end like this because it is much less believable than the ending we tell our children (but talking bears are somehow believable?) And maybe if the world’s greatest scientists met to plug the leak, they would have already solved the difficult problem at the bottom of the gulf.

But witness the power of the word ‘because’.

It’s the difference between “I deserve a 5% increase in my salary” and “I deserve a 5% increase in my salary, because that would bring my compensation in line with what people with my qualifications earn with my responsibilities.”

When it comes to asking for a raise, we are all salespeople. And the power of ‘because’ works like a charm when people

1. Are looking for an excuse to help you. In a now famous research study, Ellen Langer and her colleagues asked the Harvard librarian to turn off all but one of the Xerox machines. They then instructed a student to try and cut to the front of the line that formed in front of the one Xerox machine that remained operational. When the student asked, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” Their fellow students granted their request 60% of the time.But they were able to cut in line 93% of the time when they said “Excuse me, I have 5 pages, may I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies”. Here ‘because’ is powerful enough to work even when the justification is utterly stupid. Of course they have to make copies. That’s why they wanted to use the photocopier. Consistent with Cialdini’s principle of liking, when it comes to favors, these students were just looking for a reason to help each other. Even when the justification was stupid.
2. Aren’t knowledgeable about your subject. According to MSNBC, the stock market is in a correction phase, because of uncertainties surrounding the Greek debt crisis. Most of us, including me, don’t fully understand the complexities of the world financial markets. But there are so many variables at play that a single factor, that we have known about for months now, is unlikely to be the single cause of this correction phase. Yet unless we take time to educate ourselves, we nod dutifully at this explanation when given reason to believe. At least I do.

But if I justify my requests at work, won’t they just use it as ammunition against me?

In other words, if I offer data to support my request for a raise, won’t they just cite examples to show how my case is different?

Maybe. Which is why the more sound your justification, the more likely you are to get what you want.

But don’t overestimate the knowledge and hostility of your audience. Rarely do we encounter man-eating bears with a thorough grasp of the English language.

Photo by Horia Varlan