Henry Henke, a service manager for a large truck dealership in Lowell, Indiana, had a mechanic whose work had become less satisfactory. Instead of bawling him out or threatening him, Mr. Henke called him into his office and had a heart-to-heart talk with him.
“Bill,” he said, “you are a fine mechanic. You have been in the 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 a job is increasing and your work has not been up to your own old standards. Because you have been an outstanding mechanic in the past, in 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 responded that he hadn’t realized he had been falling down in his duties and assured his boss that he work he was getting was not out of his range of expertise and he would try to improve in the future.
In short, if you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics.
PRINCIPLE 28: Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
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