I’m back in my psych book this morning looking for a specific answer to how managers get stuck on “bad” instances from otherwise strong performing salespeople.  I’ve seen this effect with some sales managers who have a generally sour impression of a salesperson who seems to be doing well in the role.  When I pursue the topic with the manager, I typically hear of anecdotal stories with what seems to be innocuous outcomes.  However, the sales manager is still upset by situation.

Here is what I discovered in the test book – availability heuristic.  Availability heuristic is basically this – making judgments based on how easily instances come to mind.  From the textbook:

Which is more common – words that start with the letter k (e.g. king) or words that have k as the third letter (e.g. awkward)?  In English there are more than twice as many words having k for the third letter as words starting with k, but most people wrongly judge that k is more commonly the first letter.  The reason, presumably, is that it is easy to think of words starting with k but harder to think of words having k in the third position.

Here is the hook:

When a boss evaluates an employee’s reliability, he may be guided by how easy it is to remember the employee’s missing a deadline.

The authors provide a good example of air travel – millions of people fly innumerable miles all over the world and flying is one of the safest modes of travel.  But many people ignore this face and become reluctant to fly because plane crashes are so readily available in their memory.

Managers need to be cognizant of this mental short cut.  Some salespeople become labeled based on this effect.  Before moving into end-of-year reviews, make sure you perform a thorough reconstruction of each salesperson’s performance.  Remember – don’t take short cuts.

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