The Power of Reciprocity

In this short but powerful episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I share one simple leadership truth: when you support your team with their personal goals, not just their professional ones, you’re far more likely to get their support in return.

This is rooted in a well-known psychological principle of reciprocity, and it’s something most leaders overlook.

By tuning in, you’ll learn:

• Why professional development shouldn’t be a one-way street
• How supporting personal goals breeds greater commitment
• The role of reciprocity in building high-performing teams
• A practical challenge to implement this in your own leadership practice

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Podcast Transcript: The Power of Reciprocity 

In today’s episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I’m sharing one very simple leadership truth with you. 

And here it is: as a leader and manager, if you support the people in your team with some of their personal goals alongside their professional ones, then they in turn, are going to be much more likely to support you with your goals. 

There’s a very simple psychological concept that sits behind this truth that many of us as leaders and managers fail to understand and utilise fully. 

It occurs to me that goal setting and development within the workplace can often be a very narrow one-way street, and I believe that absolutely shouldn’t be the case. 

I really encourage you to invest just a little bit more time in supporting the people that you lead and manage with some of their personal goals, when and where you can, as well as just the professional goals that you might be setting in the workplace. 

You see, support – the support that we give to people with some of their personal goals – breeds and generates commitment. 

And it’s that commitment that we all want, right? 

When people feel supported with some of their personal goals and objectives, then they are much more likely to go the extra mile at work and deliver that often elusive discretionary effort that we talk about. 

I mentioned there is a psychological concept that sits behind this. 

Very simply, it’s one of reciprocity. 

When we do something for somebody else, there is this inbuilt desire in many of us to do or give something in return. 

It’s such a powerful motivator, so much so that reciprocity is one of the seven tools of influence that Dr Robert Cialdini talks about in his groundbreaking and brilliant book “Influence”. 

And finally, talking of reciprocity, if these three episodes of The Leader’s Kitbag are proving valuable for you, then the best, the simplest thing you could do to express that gratitude is to give me a like and a follow wherever you happen to be listening or watching. 

So that’s it for today’s shorter episode of The Leader’s Kitbag. 

Just a reminder – the challenge today is to invest just a little bit more time, where you can, when you can, in supporting the people that you lead and manage with their personal goals as well as their professional ones. 

And when you do that, it’s very likely that they will want to reciprocate and give you more support with what it is that you need to achieve. 

Before I go – you’ll have noticed in some of the recent episodes of The Leader’s Kitbag, I’m answering some of your specific questions. 

So if there’s a topic you want me to cover in a series of videos or a very particular question you would like me to answer, then again, drop me a line wherever you happen to be listening or watching, and I’ll do my very best to answer it for you and give you a little name check.