A lousy day but thanks anyway
It’s nice to be nice The CEO of a huge U.S. corporation famously said, “I don’t have time to be nice.” Don’t believe him. In today’s climate, he’d be a dinosaur. While you’re at it, ignore the old line about “nice guys finish last.” It ain’t true. In fact, there’s a growing belief that being nice can actually give you a rung up on the ladder of success. That doesn’t mean you should fake nice, but you shouldn’t apologize for it, either. Not all Christians are nice, but they are expected to be. The qualities society generally regards as “nice” are very close to what Christians aspire to as part of their faith. One of the first things we learn in Sunday school is the Golden Rule (“Treat others the way you would want to be treated”). When we were kids we may have thought that made us wimps. Uh-uh. It can set you up for success — both as a Christian and as a worker. Business language doesn’t usually mention “being nice.” It prefers to speak of “soft skills,” like customer service and relational savvy. An employee manual or job description might mention respect, sincerity, positive attitude, team player and so on. What it boils down to is “nice.” Business functions best when it is characterized by the Golden Rule, says Kristin Tillquist in her book, Capitalizing on Kindness: Why 21st Century Professionals Need to Be Nice. “The business world is a place for the vibrantly, positively, dynamically nice,” she says, adding that if you mesh a caring attitude toward others with savvy competence you will be “an employee of choice.” The same thing applies to the business itself. “Companies that make kindness part of their mission outperform those that don’t,” she maintains. Firms with plenty of “kindness capital” enjoy better productivity and less absenteeism. They also don’t get sued as often. Noting that a main reason why people quit their jobs is because they feel unappreciated, Tillquist warns companies that “the best and brightest employees will not stay where they are not appreciated; they will seek out environments with flourishing kindness capital.” She also warns against “kindness inhibitors” such as rude e-mail and cellphone behavior, brazen competitiveness and even bad table manners (clients and executive recruiters have been known to downgrade someone who is rude to waiters). So don’t hesitate to practice the “niceness” of your Christian faith. You can’t really put it on your resume, but you can bet it will help you in the long run.
Ever wonder what God thinks if we only give thanks when things are going well? Imagine this: A company ends the fiscal year with a great bottom line. The inclination is to thank God for a positive and profitable outcome to the year’s effort. Someone wonders — Last year was dismal. We lost money. Did we thank God then? Sports fans can see a version of this played out in professional sports. Someone scores a touchdown and makes a religious gesture. We don’t usually see that happen when a quarterback is sacked or a runner is smeared after gaining a yard. In his new book, Throwback: A BigLeague Catcher Tells How the Game Is Really Played, Jason Kendall (seemingly not a religious man) comments on this phenomenon: “A guy hits a single, claps his hands, and points to heaven? Getting hits is his job, that’s what he was supposed to do. Why doesn’t he do it when he strikes out? Wasn’t that part of God’s plan, too? You only thank Him when you get a hit? If God’s with you all the time, wasn’t He with you when you chased that slider in the dirt?”
Excerpted from You’re Hired! Looking for work in all the right places, a career guide from MEDA. Available for free download at www.meda.org
The Marketplace November December 2014
Marketplace NOv Dec CS6 2014.indd 4
4
10/20/2014 5:52:20 PM
