Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
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 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 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.
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 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?
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 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 way employees might write this headline is that cheap boss slashes health care benefits.
And if that is what you are doing, that is one thing.
But maybe you have plans to give employees an HSA 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 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 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 of your top giving priorities.
But if you see that the principal would perceive this headline as parent of current students thriving at the school stops giving to the school because of other priorities, you might not like that headline.
So you could potentially give a small amount, even if you don't give a lot.
When you use the headline test, you can make sure that your thoughtful decision seems 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 try using the headline test, I'd love to hear about it.
You can reach me at laura .vanderkam .com.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at BeforeBreakfastPod.
That's B -E the number four, then Breakfast P -O -D.
You can also shoot me an email at BeforeBreakfastPodcast at IHeartMedia .com.
That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Thanks so much. I look forward to staying in touch.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio.
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