Simon and schuster

PRINCIPLE 4 
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders. 
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“LET THE OTHER PERSON SAVE FACE.” 
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 
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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. What matters is not what I think of him, but what 
he thinks of himself. Hurting a man in his dignity is a crime.” 
A real leader will always follow…