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January 13, 2023 5 mins

Ask how others will perceive your decisions

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to use the headline test. When you
are making a decision, consider how your decision would sound

(00:26):
as the headline of a newspaper article. You want to
make the best decision, not just the most popular or
easiest one, but there is also something to be said
for considering how other people will be likely to understand
your decision at first glance. You want to make sure

(00:46):
it won't come off in a way that you don't intend.
Many business leaders learn the advice that you shouldn't do
anything you wouldn't want written about on the front page
of the Wall Street Journal. If you would be embarrassed
by that prominent telling of what you are about to do,
you should really think about whether you should do it,

(01:11):
And that is good advice. But even if you are
doing something reasonable, headlines often tell the most controversial or
grabby aspect of a story. If people are likely to
talk about what you are doing, you want to think
about the potential headlines so you can be intentional about

(01:33):
how you explain the decision and your reasoning. For instance,
if you are on the school board for your town
and decide to move your own child to an independent school.
You will realize that this probably does not pass the
headline test on its face. School board member abandoning public schools, right,

(01:57):
that's what people will think. So you need to think
about how you will narrate that decision in a way
that doesn't undercut your support for your town's public schools.
And there are various reasons that this might be the case.
Maybe your child has a special need that a local
private school specializes in. You can talk about the decision

(02:19):
that way and emphasize that you are working on expanding
your public schools special education offerings, but in the meantime,
you are making this decision for your child. As another example,
suppose your organization goes to a high deductible health insurance
plan from a more traditional health insurance plan. The obvious

(02:42):
way employees might write this headline is that cheap boss
slashes healthcare benefits. And if that is what you're doing,
that is one thing. But maybe you have plans to
give employees an hs A card that would cover most
of the deductible change, and it turns out that your
organization will still save enough that everyone can get a

(03:05):
cost of living salary increase. If that is the case,
you need to make sure that you are talking about
those things every single time you talk about the health
insurance change to try to shape the headline that people
would see. Sometimes the headline test will prompt you to

(03:26):
think carefully about how to communicate your decision, and other
times the headline test may lead you to do something differently.
Maybe ideally you would rather concentrate your charitable giving on
fewer organizations so your donations make a bigger difference. Your
kids school seems pretty well funded, so it isn't one

(03:49):
of your top giving priorities. But if you see that
the principle would perceive this headline as parent of current
students thriving at the school stops give in to the
school because of other priorities, you might not like that headline,
so you could potentially give a small amount even if

(04:10):
you don't give a lot. When you use the headline test,
you can make sure that your thoughtful decisions seem thoughtful
to someone without all the details. That way, you'll know
when you may need to be especially intentional about your
explanations or even perhaps change what you do if you

(04:33):
try using the headline test, I'd love to hear about it.
You can reach me at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(04:57):
I'd love to hear from it. You can send me
your tips, questions, or anything else. Just connect with me
on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's
b E the number four, then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at iHeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is

(05:19):
spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam

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