Lighthouse Leadership Weekly #98: The power of Reciprocity, Pigeonholing, a new Book of the Month, and more…

Leadership lessons are all around us if you pay attention.

Continuing the story from last week, I did successfully return my boots. However, it was unfortunately on brand that they accepted the return, yet never even asked for why I was returning them.

I don’t know if it’s because looking at them it was obvious, or they just didn’t want to have a discussion, but I was a bit surprised at the combination of instant, full refund, and not asking why.

After failing to find another pair I liked at the store, I decided it was time to head to another place.

Fortunately, this street had a Tecovas store half a block away, so I walked in there.

What a different experience:

• I was greeted as soon as I walked in.
• As soon as I picked up a boot on display, someone came over and asked me if I’d like to try it on and what size.
• They had an impressive radio system so someone ran shoes from the back out to their front store staff to hand to me to try.
• While we waited for the shoe runner, they offered me a beverage of my choice.

And that last part is super clever and worth learning from.

Reciprocity is powerful.

One of the easiest ways to win someone over is with a small gift. It causes people to want to reciprocate.

It’s why the Hare Krishna likes to give out little booklets or flowers before asking for a donation.

It’s also how a study showed giving people a free soda made them more likely to buy raffle tickets later.

And as a leader, you can win over a little goodwill from your team by doing the same.

For example, I used to do walks and talks for 1 on 1s with some of the Lighthouse team when we were all working together in San Francisco. We used to go to the CVS just down the street and I’d buy them a beverage of their choosing from there.

That $1-$3 on a green tea, soda, or Vitamin Water did wonders.

Not only did it seem to break the ice, but you’d be surprised how helpful a pause, taking a sip, and then talking about something hard seems to help.

How can you bring a little reciprocity to your team?

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This week, we take a look at how pigeonholing is holding you back, introduce our last Book of the Month of the year, request your feedback, and have a post for you on mindfulness to read.

Let’s dive in…

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