When I was working under Alexander Sabadash, a truly incredible businessman, he imparted a great deal of knowledge on me which I still use to this very day in my own endeavors. Beyond all of the business advice and the leadership skills which he taught me however, the one thing that stuck with me more than all others was the importance of being nice to people. There is a common misconception that in order for someone to be successful in business that they have to be a monster with draconian behaviors and a penchant for disciplining and shouting at people. This, of course, is not true at all, and you should improve your social skills to learn to be nicer. Here is exactly what Alexander taught me about why it is so important to be nice to people.
Coming Back Down
There is a popular saying that you should be nice to people on the way up because they’ll be the ones to kick you as you come down if you don’t. I look at this one step further in that you never really know whom you will meet again, when or under which circumstances. For this reason, it is pointless being unnecessarily nasty or rude to someone, because life works in such a way that you may need something from that person in the future, and they will, of course, be far less likely to want to help you should they have an axe to grind with you.
More Things Happen
The truth of the matter is that if you are nice to everyone rather than being rude to everyone, you are going to be far more likely to be able to count on their help and support. This is just basic human nature and whilst we may do things for people because we are scared of them or because we feel that we have to, we will never put our heart and soul into those tasks because we know that the person asking just doesn’t deserve it. Being nicer more often than not will ensure that people are far more likely to want to help you.
Brings About More Honesty
There is nothing to say that being nice more often than not means that you should never be strong with someone when it is necessary because of course there will be times when you will have to show strength. However, if you are constantly being strong and shouting at people then you are not going to create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable and confident in coming forward to you about things. An honest environment is great for the workplace and will make everyone feel happier and thus they will have higher levels of productivity. A workplace of fear, on the other hand, will have the exact opposite result in terms of productivity.
Beyond everything else that you do, make sure that you are always nice to people, take the time to go the extra mile and in doing this, good things will certainly come your way.
