The Velvet Hammer

The saying goes "If you put too much velvet around the hammer it won’t drive home the nail." I used to be guilty of this myself. Whenever I had to deliver a hard message I would try to wrap some “velvet around the hammer” to remove the sting of the message. Regrettably, I sometimes padded the hammer so much I never drove home the point.

I saw the same thing happen at a store manager’s meeting. At the meeting the VP of stores was addressing his managers on the subject of current sales falling short of expectations. I liked that fact that he told the team that he knows they’re giving their best. Unfortunately he proceeded to explain away the shortfalls on gas prices, housing slow-down, the Big R, etc. That all may be true, but he might as well had told them, "Oh screw the numbers. We don't have a snowball chance in hell in hitting them, so lets just forget about it. It's alright to fall short. "

Instead he could pull just a little bit of that velvet off the hammer. He could had said to the managers that he knows everyone is giving 100%, but in today’s retail market that is not going to enough to overcome business conditions. He could have asked all of them all to elevate their game and bring in goal regardless of the price of gasoline or houses or the Big R.

It’s always a fine line between delivering a tough message and de-motivating your team. I think because the VP acknowledged that people weren't slacking off he wouldn't have de-motivated the team by putting a bit more “punch” on the message. They would have left the team pumped up instead of thinking why bother.

Are you striking the right balance between hammer and velvet?

Th