You Can Read Anyone

You Can Read Anyone

*David J. Lieberman, Ph.D. (2007)*

A sales manager and the missing supplies

Picture this scene from the opening chapter of Lieberman's book. A sales manager named Tom suspects that one of his salespeople, Jill, has been quietly walking off with office supplies. Pens, toner, paper. Nothing huge, but enough to notice. He has two bad options. He can confront her directly, which puts her on the defensive and ruins the relationship if he is wrong. Or he can ignore it and lose more inventory. Lieberman offers a third path.

Tom calls Jill into his office and says, in a tone of mild puzzlement, "Jill, I'm wondering if you could help me with something. It's come to my attention that someone in the sales department has been taking home office supplies for personal use. Do you have any idea how we can put a stop to this?" Then he watches her.

If Jill is innocent, she leans in. She is interested. She offers ideas. She might even feel flattered that Tom asked her opinion. If Jill is the one taking the supplies, something different happens. Her body language shifts. She becomes uneasy. She tries to change the subject. She may volunteer, unprompted, that she would never do anything like that. Lieberman's point is sharp. Innocent people engage with the topic. Guilty people, the moment they hear the topic, want to be somewhere else.

This is the entire spirit of *You Can Read Anyone*. Lieberman is not selling vague body-language tricks. He is selling little verbal experiments. You set up a question or a scenario that does not accuse anyone of anything, then you watch the reaction. The signal is in the gap between what a normal person would do and what your subject actually does.