Management Leverage Blog

“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

While in Beijing with the University of Texas EMBA class of 2010, I found a great example of why Santa should sit on your personal board of directors.

There is quite a bit of traffic noise in this one, so turn down your volume.

I first experienced what I now think of as real French bread at a German Market. In Munich I lived about 6 blocks from Viktualianmarkt , where I often purchased the ingredients for one of my many dinner parties. These parties would continue until well into the night, where we would boisterously defend our ideas and pick at French bread crumbs that had embedded themselves into our elbows.

Though likely not under-appreciated, there is still much we can learn about our ideas from French bread.

1. “Hurry, while supplies last”-French bread grows stale in less than 24hours. You really have to eat it immediately or it hardens into crumby toast. Like French bread, you are more likely to have your best ideas implemented when you give them a limited shelf life. It’s the difference between “I think we should do X” and “I think I can squeeze in X if we start before the recruiting cycle picks up again in a couple months.” Think of it as a culinary implantation of the scarcity principle.
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: My bread pudding recipe (or bread puddin’ as I was often corrected) remains one of  my prized accomplishments in the 10 years I spent in New Orleans. Like they do with Gumbo, most New Orleanians have completely different ideas as to what constitutes the perfect bread pudding.My hypothesis is that the perfect bread pudding is the one most similar to the one mother’s. Despite the variety, all bread pudding recipes start with the same ingredient: stale French bread. That’s right. You intentionally let perfectly good bread grow stale. Like French bread, your ideas may be best saved for a sweeter use at a later date. The trick is to find some way to organize them. I use delicious and Evernote.
3. Pride goeth before fall: French bread is pretty boring by itself. But it is the perfect consistency for sopping up sauce, or the supreme vehicle for a slab of cheese. Our ideas aren’t much different. As proud as we are of our ideas, we can always improve them when we mix them with  someone else’s. You can also add flavor by paying attention to domains unrelated to your idea. The ingredients of this post came from a combination of the hunger pangs of first day of my diet (again) and seeing a picture of French bread.

Photograph courtesy of ianturton

I once spent the evening with a Greek family outside Olympus. Actually, my traveling companion and I thought we had wandered into a restaurant. But after a few sips (or was that glasses?) of some really bad wine, the whole scene slipped pretty quickly into what seemed like My Big Fat Greek Family Reunion.

Like many of the patrons, the band was related to the proprietor. They sat at a table, leaving the stage empty. And when they began to play, people spontaneously danced. There was no warm up first. These people were obviously serious about their dancing.

It wasn’t long before we were swept into the event (I don’t think they gave us much choice) and after several hours of Greek square dancing without the plaid outfits, I received my bill, abruptly reminding me that I was at a restaurant, not a party.

This evening stands out from (too) many other restaurant visits, because the proprietor invited us behind the restaurant façade and into his boisterous family. It was loud, chaotic, and fun. Above all else, it was also authentic.

We often forget authenticity in our daily lives as managers. In our quest to align incentives, provide feedback and effectively delegate, we often forget that people respond best to other people, not professional techniques.

Behaving professionally, does not mean ‘vanilla’. And it also doesn’t mean you need to find your Anthony Robbins-esque touchy feely center, somehow releasing the real you in the process. Just be as you as you can stand.

Not everyone will respond favorably, of course. But those who do will become fans, and those that don’t will eventually leave. It won’t be long before you are mostly left with directs who will spontaneously dance your praises.

Photo by georgeanddana

The advent of social media has finally provided managers tools they need to give feedback that is both timely and frequent. So how do you use all these new toys to give feedback?

Don’t do it.

If your intent is to make someone feel good, then a quick tweet or Facebook post might do the trick. But that’s praise, not feedback.

Though the two are often confused, managers give feedback for very different reasons than praise. The purpose of feedback is to continue positive or discontinue negative behaviors.

Properly implemented, feedback lies at the heart of a manager’s effectiveness, as it frees a manager to focus on more strategic matters. It’s important stuff.

And the channel you choose to communicate to your direct reports conveys the importance you place on both the topic and your relationship with them.

While you may use social media to let the world know you are engaged to be married, or you are expecting your first child, you would offend those closest to you if you did not have the common courtesy to at least pick up the telephone.

Similarly, give feedback face-to-face, or by phone if you are separated by several time zones. The topic and your relationship with your direct are that important.

Photo by nodmonkey