Do Me a Favor - Safety

My first job right out of high school was as a machine operator in a machine shop. I hated wearing my safety glasses and often removed them. Like many other employees, I would be on the lookout for the boss so I could put on my safety glasses before he could see I wasn't wearing them. They were uncomfortable, got dirty easily and once nearly caused me to have some eye damage when a string of metal coming off of an engine lathe wrapped around the glasses and ended up poking me right under the eye. Of course I always mentioned that one incident when my boss scolded me for not wearing the safety glasses. After each scolding I would consistently wear my safety glasses -- -- at least for a little while.

My boss lived in our neighborhood and knew my family for about five years. Indeed that's how I got the job. His company was looking for machine operator trainees and I was right out of high school looking for work. It was a good company and I liked the job. I just didn't like the safety glasses. But he finally found a way to get me to wear my safety glasses voluntarily and permanently.

One day he caught me not wearing my glasses again. Looking at me right in the eye and talking to me in a quiet voice, he said: "Do me a favor. I don't ever want to tell your mother and father that you lost an eye because you weren't wearing your safety glasses. I've been friends with your parents for a long time, and having to tell them something like that would bother me greatly. Please do me that favor and wear your safety glasses. For me." I never took the safety glasses off again.

The technique he used is called moral suasion. It's the idea of convincing someone to do something right, not because you have power and control over them, but because what you say makes sense and the listener respects you as a leader. And that last part is the key to moral suasion. The more a person looks to someone as a leader, the more a person admires and respects the person providing the moral lesson, the greater the chance the listener will be persuaded.

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