Being nice.  Its not hard, and most people do it most of the time.  But there is more to being nice than the simple satisfaction.  Nice people and nice environments can help your business thrive.  Niceness can show clients, and employees you and your business care, and they will be treated well in your hands.  Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, CEO and President of the Kaplan Thaler Group created the “Guiding Principles of Nice” from their book The Power of Nice, How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness.  The guiding principles are listed below.

1. Positive impressions are like seeds. Simple gestures such as smiling, saying ‘thank you’ and laughing heartily grow and expand beyond just that moment.
2. You never know. Treat everyone as the most important person in the world, because you never know who they know and what great things can happen.
3. People change. You never know who might become important five or ten years from now, so be nice to everyone, including receptionists and assistants.
4. Nice must be automatic. Nice needs to become a habit, not something you turn on and off when it benefits you.
5. Negative impressions are like germs. At first you might not see the impact of making rude gestures and remarks, but they are silently infecting you and those around you.
6. You will know. Although you might not see someone again whom you treat badly – you will know – and it might affect your future relationships.

An easy way to be nice, especially within the incentive realm is to give small motivative incentives in the form of a small denomination gift card.  Whether it pays for the recipient’s morning coffee, or takes the edge off their bill at the gas station, or a restaurant a small giftcard is a nice way to say thank you.  For an employee it shows your gratitude, and to a potential client it shows that you are going to be there for them and for their interests.  So next time you have an important meeting, whether it be with people you manage, or people who you hope to be doing business with; leave the aggressive salesperson behind and just, be nice.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.