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, […]

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…