Years ago the General Electric Company was faced with
the delicate task of removing Charles Steinmetz from
the head of a department. Steinmetz, a genius of the first
magnitude when it came to electricity, was a failure as
the head of the calculating department. Yet the company
didn’t dare offend the man. He was indispensable - and
highly sensitive. So they gave him a new title. They
made him Consulting Engineer of the General Electric
Company - a new title for work he was already doing -
and let someone else head up the department.
Steinmetz was happy.
So were the officers of G.E. They had gently maneuvered
their most temperamental star, and they had done
it without a storm - by letting him save face.
Letting one save face! How important, how vitally important
that is! And how few of us ever stop to think of
it! We ride roughshod over the feelings of others, getting
our own way, finding fault, issuing threats, criticizing a
child or an employee in front of others, without even
considering the hurt to the other person’s pride.
Whereas a few minutes’ thought, a considerate word or
two, a genuine understanding of the other person’s attitude,
would go so far toward alleviating the sting!
Let’s remember that the next time we are faced with
the distasteful necessity of discharging or reprimanding
an employee.
“Firing employees is not much fun. Getting fired is
even less fun.” (I’m quoting now from a letter written
me by Marshall A. Granger, a certified public accountant.)
“Our business is mostly seasonal. Therefore we
have to let a lot of people go after the income tax rush is
over.
It’s a byword in our profession that no one enjoys
wielding the ax. Consequently, the custom has developed
of getting it over as soon as possible, and usually
in the following way: ‘Sit down, Mr. Smith. The season’s
over, and we don’t seem to see any more assignments for
you. Of course, you understood you were only employed
for the busy season anyhow, etc., etc.’
“The effect on these people is one of disappointment
and a feeling of being ‘let down.’ Most of them are in the
accounting field for life, and they retain no particular
love for the firm that drops them so casually.
“I recently decided to let our seasonal personnel go
with a little more tact and consideration. So I call each
one in only after carefully thinking over his or her work
during the winter. And I’ve said something like this:
‘Mr. Smith, you’ve done a fine job (if he has). That time
we sent you to Newark, you had a tough assignment.
You were on the spot, but you came through with flying
colors, and we want you to know the firm is proud of
you. You’ve got the stuff - you’re going a long way,
wherever you’re working. This firm believes in you, and
is rooting for you, and we don’t want you to forget it.’
“Effect? The people go away feeling a lot better about
being fired. They don’t feel ‘let down.’ They know if we
had work for them, we’d keep them on. And when we
need them again, they come to us with a keen personal
affection.”
At one session of our course, two class members discussed
the negative effects of faultfinding versus the
positive effects of letting the other person save face.
Fred Clark of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told of an incident
that occurred in his company: “At one of our production
meetings, a vice president was asking very
pointed questions of one of our production supervisors
regarding a production process. His tone of voice was
aggressive and aimed at pointing out faulty performance
on the part of the supervisor. Not wanting to be embarrassed
in front of his peers, the supervisor was evasive
in his responses. This caused the vice president to lose
his temper, berate the supervisor and accuse him of
lying.
“Any working relationship that might have existed
prior to this encounter was destroyed in a few brief moments.
This supervisor, who was basically a good
worker, was useless to our company from that time on. A
few months later he left our firm and went to work for a
competitor, where I understand he is doing a fine job.”
Another class member, Anna Mazzone, related how a
similar incident had occurred at her job - but what a
difference in approach and results! Ms. Mazzone, a marketing
specialist for a food packer, was given her first
major assignment - the test-marketing of a new product.
She told the class: “When the results of the test came in,
I was devastated. I had made a serious error in my planning,
and the entire test had to be done all over again.
To make this worse, I had no time to discuss it with my
boss before the meeting in which I was to make my
report on the project.
“When I was called on to give the report, I was shaking
with fright. I had all I could do to keep from breaking
down, but I resolved I would not cry and have all those
men make remarks about women not being able to handle
a management job because they are too emotional. I
made my report briefly and stated that due to an error I
would repeat the study before the next meeting. I sat
down, expecting my boss to blow up.
“Instead, he thanked me for my work and remarked
that it was not unusual for a person to make an error on
a new project and that he had confidence that the repeat
survey would be accurate and meaningful to the company.
He Assured me, in front of all my colleagues, that
he had faith in me and I knew I had done my best, and
that my lack of experience, not my lack of ability, was
the reason for the failure.
I left that meeting with my head in the air and
with the determination that I would never let that boss
of mine down again.”
Even if we are right and the other person is definitely
wrong, we only destroy ego by causing someone to lose
face. The legendary French aviation pioneer and author
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote: "I have no right to say
or do anything that diminishes a man in his own eyes.
