There are a number of people who view being nice as a liability when it comes to their personal and professional success. Some say, “If you’re nice, people will take advantage of you.” Others say, “If you’re nice, you’ll be seen as being weak.” Recent research studies, however, have shown that just the opposite is true. In a study published in the March, 2009 issue of the Journal of Product Innovation Management, researchers found that managers who treated their employees with kindness, respect and fairness got far better performance from them than managers who didn’t. Other studies show that nice people are happier, healthier, more optimistic and make more money than their not so nice counterparts. So, make it a point to smile and say or do something that brightens the day of everyone you come into contact with. If you do this for one week, you’ll be amazed at how much your life changes for the better.
Recommended Reading
Instant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard
Transform Your Workplace!
Imagine a company where people are excited about coming to work and giving their best efforts every day. In this innovative and engrossing business parable, Harry Paul and Ross Reck show managers at all levels how they can immediately and easily increase productivity by tapping into the discretionary effort of the people who work for them. Starting from the most basic aspect of business reality—that people intentionally regulate the amount of effort they put into their jobs based upon how they feel they’re being treated—the authors point out that the most important part of the job of every manager, team leader, supervisor, and executive is to treat people in such a way that they become excited about applying all their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs.
At the book’s center is the story of Nancy Kim, a human resources director at a magazine that is struggling with all the problems associated with unhappy employees—low productivity and morale along with high absenteeism and turnover. After she openly challenges the CEO’s new management-by-the-numbers system, she’s charged with turning the situation around immediately. Filled with real-world studies, Instant Turnaround! shows anyone how to turn the workplace into a destination—a place where working hard feels like hardly working because it’s engaging, enjoyable, and fulfilling.
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