Social Capital Mentor

Social capital isn’t complicated. At it’s core, it’s pretty basic. It’s about how you treat other people and how you are treated in return. Here’s an example. Two days ago I turned the key in my Triumph, and all I got was “click”. Dead battery. Fortunately, I was parked right in front of the San Francisco Scooter Centre.

San Francisco Scooter Centre

I went inside. Barry, the owner, explained the various options to me—new battery, jump start, charge the battery, etc. When we decided a charge was the way to go, he just asked for the key and told me he’d take care of it. I didn’t have to worry about anything else.

The next day it was ready to go. It wasn’t entirely routine, either; Triumph uses special tools that this scooter shop doesn’t have and they had to work it out. When it came time to settle up, Barry said, “No problem. All I did was charge it up. We’re good.” (I insisted on at least tipping him ten bucks for his trouble.)

Did Barry have to help me for free? Of course not. So why did he? Most likely it’s because he’s a ‘good person’ and he understands the value of keeping potential customers happy, but like Malcolm Gladwell points out in his new book Outliers: The Story of Success, there’s often more to it than that. Here are a couple elements that likely helped.

Be Friendly & Non-pushy
I could have rushed into their shop, trying to convince someone to give me a jump as quickly as possible so I could be on my way (I was going to meet a friend for coffee). That’s risky. Barry and his staff might be in the middle of something. They might be having a particularly busy day. You never know. Instead, I waited until Barry finished whatever he was looking down at, we greeted each other politely and I explained the situation.

Build on Positive Past Experiences
While we were initially assessing the options, I told Barry that I worked right next door. That might have made a difference because every time we have an event, someone takes our extra food over to the scooter shop and shares with them. It’s just a nice thing to do, and it’s hard to imagine that this simple act of sharing food didn’t have a positive impact on Barry. Maybe it contributed to the hospitality shown to me, even though I was never the one who brought the food over (my co-workers had).

You might be thinking that this is nothing more than common courtesy or being a good neighbor. That’s the point! People like helping each other out. It’s no different with your colleagues, your boss, or your clients.

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