Small, cheap favors done habitually for colleagues across the company, an introduction, a quick review, a piece of advice, build a manager a broad stock of goodwill that surfaces when support is needed.
An example
For six years, the sales operations manager at a family-owned building supply distributor had made a habit of small favors. He reviewed a warehouse supervisor's first budget, introduced a new branch manager to a lending officer at the company's bank, spent twenty minutes showing the receivables team a spreadsheet shortcut, and answered every question about the pricing system the same day. None of it took long, and he asked for nothing. When he proposed replacing the branches' paper quotes with a shared quoting tool, he expected resistance, since each branch manager had their own way of quoting. Seven of the eleven called him within a week to volunteer for the pilot, two of them managers he had helped in their first year. The owner's son, who chaired the operating meeting, asked him how he had brought the branches along so fast.
Why it works
Many colleagues have received small kindnesses from the manager and want to return them, so support is easier to give when the manager finally asks. Each favor costs the giver a few minutes, but they add up across a broad network of people who now know and trust the giver. Spread widely and with no ask attached, they read as generosity, which sets them apart from favors aimed at a specific decision-maker. The move depends on consistency over years, on favors that really help, and on the giver never keeping score aloud.
The thinking behind it
Adam M. Grant Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success (2013) describes the five-minute favor, a phrase Grant took from an entrepreneur: help that adds a lot of value to someone else at little cost to the giver, which over time builds a wide network of goodwill. A reviewed budget, an introduction to a banker, and a spreadsheet shortcut are favors of that size, and the branch managers who volunteered for the pilot came from that network.
Robert B. Cialdini Influence (1984) describes reciprocity: people feel obliged to repay what others give them, including favors they did not ask for. That obligation explains why years of unrequested help turned into volunteers for a pilot. It also explains the line in this tactic, because favors tracked and called in feel like a debt being collected, which turns a willing return into a grudging one.
When it fits
Any manager willing to invest small amounts of time across many relationships for years before needing them can use it. It suits people whose work touches many functions, who have skills or contacts others need, and who can spare five or ten minutes a day. The goodwill builds slowly, so start well before you need it.
How to use it well
Make small favors a habit: introductions, quick reviews, a piece of advice, an answer to a question, credit passed on to someone's boss.
- Spread them widely, across functions and levels, including people who can do nothing for you now.
- Ask for nothing in return, and leave past favors unmentioned when you later ask for support.
- Protect your time. Favors that take five minutes are sustainable; ones that take a week will burn you out.
When you do need support, ask plainly. People who remember your help will usually want to give it, and reminding them of it only spoils the gesture.
What it costs and where it backfires
The minutes add up, and people who say yes to everything get taken for granted or overloaded. Some colleagues will take without ever returning. The goodwill is diffuse, so it helps when broad support is needed and may not move one particular decision-maker. Given freely, favors stay what they look like. Once they are tracked and called in, or given to plant an obligation in someone you plan to ask, they have become a different move, and people sense the difference.
When it is used on you
Broad support that arrives quickly for a colleague's proposal often rests on years of small help to many people. That is a legitimate base, and the answer to it is building your own. Judge the proposal on its merits, as you would any other.