Mike Lehr's Blog

Remembering names is important, but it’s challenging to do that. It does require time but less so as we train our minds. We do this in the same way we train our bodies for any athletic or skilled endeavor: practice, practice, practice.

Remembering five hundred employee names is quite doable. As proof, start listing all the people you know including celebrities, politicians and athletes. You’ll be surprised as to how many names you can remember. You’ll come very close to 500 if not more, and most of them are probably far less important to you than your employees.

Of course, there are many ways to “cheat” too:

• When you realize that you want to remember someone’s name but don’t, find it out as soon as possible; it’ll be easier to remember later.
• Ask help from others such as people’s managers, front office staff, human resources people
• Always review rosters of attendees for gatherings such as a conferences or seminars before you attend even if you don’t know many people; their names will be easier to remember when you hear them in meeting
• Before visiting, sort and review your contacts by location or department or secure a company roster; try visualizing each person on a roster; research those you don’t remember
• Create “seating charts” to help you by verifying your knowledge in the course of your normal work by using as cheat sheets before and during visits
• Immediately after your visit or attendance, review rosters and re-visualize each person you met; the sooner you do this the better

Keep your own notes on people – including fellow employees – that you can reference before visiting again

The way people look at things is greatly influenced by how they feel about us. People like to hear their names and to have them remembered. Therefore, you can influence their intuitive processes by doing these. While many of us know this, we don’t realize how important it is. It’s an effort very deserving of our time and resources.

In journalism class, instructors will tell students that using names in articles is critical to securing readers’ interest. At a party, someone told me his favorite class was statistics because the professor remembered everyone’s names. A college professor said that a student focus group told his colleagues that professors could improve their course evaluations and standing with students by simply starting to remember and use students’ names in class.

What do names have to do with enjoying statistics or evaluating professors? A lot. They affect people’s intuition which in turns affects their cognition. Their cognition is responsible for producing the rationales that support people’s preferences. The more they like the messenger the more likely they’ll like the message; they’ll learn material, adopt initiatives and perform tasks much quicker and more effectively.

However, remembering people’s names, especially all your employees, might be difficult, but virtually all of us, if we work at it and “cheat” a bit can remember close to five hundred names. First, it’s a matter of saying, “This is important.” Second, it will initially seem like a daunting task, but we become better as we train ourselves. In this sense, our minds work very much like our muscles. They become stronger through training and practicing.

Here are some techniques for using and remembering names.