Give a Fine Reputation to Live Up To
Give a Fine Reputation to Live Up To
There is an old saying: "Give a dog a bad name and you may as well shoot him." It means that we respond to what others believe about us. If a young person is labeled a "troublemaker" or a "delinquent," you can bet they will live up to that reputation — they've been condemned and feel they have nothing to lose.
The reverse is equally true. Give a person a fine reputation — even one they haven't fully earned yet — and they will make prodigious efforts rather than see you disillusioned.
Shakespeare: "Assume a virtue, if you have it not."
If you want to influence a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait was already one of his or her outstanding characteristics. State it openly. Give them a reputation to live up to and they will do almost anything not to let you down.
Mrs. Ruth Hopkins and Terrible Tommy
A fourth-grade teacher from Brooklyn, Mrs. Hopkins, saw "Terrible Tommy" on her class roster — the school's most notorious bad boy. His last teacher had constantly complained about him to anyone who would listen. Tommy caused serious discipline problems, picked fights, was fresh to the teacher, and seemed to grow worse as he got older. His only redeeming feature: he could learn and master schoolwork easily.
When she greeted her new students, she made little comments to each: "Rose, that's a pretty dress you're wearing," "Alicia, I hear you draw beautifully." When she came to Tommy, she looked him straight in the eyes and said:
"Tommy, I understand you are a natural leader. I'm going to depend on you to help me make this class the best one in the whole fourth grade this year."
She reinforced this over the first few days by complimenting everything he did and commenting on how this or that showed what a smart, talented boy he was. With that reputation to live up to, even a nine-year-old couldn't let her down — and he didn't.
The Exchange Buffet's Honor System
The Exchange Buffet chain of twenty-six restaurants operated on the honor system for fifty years — never handed a customer a check; as you leave, you tell the cashier what you owe, and that's what you pay. No one watches.
"The Exchange Buffets let the public know that they feel their customers are honest, so everyone — rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief — everyone lives up to the reputation of honesty that is bestowed upon them."
Henry Henke and the Slipping Mechanic
Henry Henke (truck dealership service manager, Lowell, Indiana) had a good mechanic whose work had recently become slipshod and incomplete. Instead of bawling him out, Henke called him in for a heart-to-heart:
"Bill, you are a fine mechanic. You have been in this line of work for a good number of years. You have repaired many vehicles to the customers' satisfaction. In fact, we've had a number of compliments about the good work you have done. Yet, of late, the time you take to complete each job has been increasing and your work has not been up to your own standards. Because you have been such an outstanding mechanic in the past, I felt sure you would want to know that I am not happy with this situation, and perhaps jointly we could find some way to correct the problem."
Bill hadn't realized he had been falling down. He assured his boss he would improve. Did he? He once again became a fast and thorough mechanic. With that reputation Mr. Henke had given him to live up to, how could he do anything else?
Dr. Fitzhugh and the Cleaning Man
A patient pointed out that the cup holder used to rinse mouths was tarnished. When the patient left, Dr. Fitzhugh wrote a note to Martin, the cleaning man:
"My dear Martin, I see you so seldom, so I thought I'd take the time to thank you for the fine job of cleaning you've been doing. By the way, I thought I'd mention that since two hours, twice a week, is a very limited amount of time, please feel free to work an extra half hour from time to time if you feel you need to do those 'once-in-a-while' things like polishing the cup holders and the like. I, of course, will pay you for the extra time."
Next day: desk polished to a mirror-like finish. Chair polished. The shiniest, cleanest chrome-plated cup holder Dr. Fitzhugh had ever seen. He had given the cleaning man a fine reputation to live up to, and because of this small gesture, Martin outperformed all his past efforts.
Connections
- praise-every-improvement — the previous principle; praise what they've already done; this principle goes further: name who they are (or can become)
- make-others-feel-important — assigning someone a fine reputation is one of the most powerful ways to make them feel genuinely important; it treats them as already being the person they aspire to be
- give-honest-and-sincere-appreciation — the fine reputation must be based on something real; it is not invented flattery but a true quality, amplified and made explicit