Treating people with kindness
In the hustle bustle of this crazy world that we live in, it is wonderful to see some glimmers of hope for doing things a bit differently. Thought leaders such as Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Adam Grant and Bernadette Jiwa are all advocating to be a bit kinder, a bit gentler, to give rather than take and to think of others before ourselves.
And what’s great about the approaches that these leaders are suggesting is that they reap benefits way beyond what they cost.
Give, rather than Take
Adam Grant, bestselling author of Give and Take has this to say in an interview with McKinsey on why giving works:
“And we got staggering results in the call-center setting when doing this. We bring in one person who’s benefited from the work that you do — to talk for five minutes about its impact — and we get over a 400 percent caller-by-caller spike in productivity..”
A 400% spike in productivity..
Most organisations would give anything for any increase in productivity and yet, the approaches that they are taking to get those increases are based on the take principle rather than the give principle (that is, employees do more with less, or do more in less time, or any other variant of this equation). And the thing is, that those approaches rarely reap the benefits long term. There may be an initial spike in productivity but almost always, it returns to the original level (sometimes even falling below that).
Perhaps it is time to think of productivity through another lens.
It’s your job to make people happy
Another best selling author, Bernadette Jiwa says this:
“The job of every single business on the planet is to do just one thing — to make people happy. When you find ways to do that then you win..”
Or (in my words), that by giving, you actually end up receiving.
This approach resonates with me. I like that it is about looking outwards rather than inwards. It accords well with what we know about great leadership now. And more than anything, we are starting to see that these sort of approaches work. And they work for the long term rather than a short term spike. Think about all that Simon Sinek has to say on great leadership.
There’s even a new way of looking at capitalism — a movement called Conscious Capitalism. And they have this to say:
“Today’s best companies get it. From Zappos to Whole Foods, the Container Store to Google: they’re generating every form of value that matters: emotional, social and financial.”
So, slowly slowly, we are doing things differently. And it is starting to work.
But for all that, the quote I love most on this subject is by the master, Seth Godin who has this to say:
Treating people with kindness
“One theory says that if you treat people well, you’re more likely to encourage them to do what you want, making the effort pay off. Do this, get that.
Another one, which I prefer, is that you might consider treating people with kindness merely because you can. Regardless of what they choose to do in response, this is what you choose to do. Because you can..”
