With little ability to read during my bout with the flu over Christmas, I listened to NPR. What I heard was hopeful: programs discussing kindness.<\/p>\n
Kindness \u2013 not a word historically associated with corporations, those bastions of male verve \u2013 is now being equated with the bottom line. How times have changed. In the 90s when I gave keynotes titled \u2018Sales as a Spiritual Practice\u2019 I would get asked: \u201cYes, but how would we make money?\u201d<\/p>\n
Imagine embracing the desire to be helpful and considerate, compassionate and generous as part of accepted business practice. We all know what happens when it\u2019s ignored. We know how workplace issues grind people down, and how infrequently those below the top tier get asked their opinions. We know we lose more good employees to treatment issues than to pay issues. We know that 70% of buying decisions are made by women.<\/p>\n
And yet we continue assuming the bottom line is about minimizing costs and maximizing profit.<\/p>\n
HOW KINDNESS CAN EFFECT OUR BOTTOM LINE<\/p>\n
The costs of degrading and ignoring employees and making customers conform to our money-saving practices cost us high turnover, a paucity of fresh ideas and new leaders, and the need to hire more supervisory managers to handle the fallout. I know a company here in Austin with a reputation of treating employees so punitively that only na\u00efve out-of-towners apply for the many available jobs.<\/p>\n
Research has shown kindness actually increases our bottom line:<\/p>\n
Here are a few of my personal experiences of monetizing kindness:<\/p>\n
1. \u00a0Kindness with customers:<\/p>\n
a. \u00a0In Portland recently, I couldn\u2019t locate my correct bus stop. I called the Transit help line and a person answered! And he stayed on the line until I got to my destination!<\/p>\n
b. \u00a0After not receiving my NYTimes for four Sundays, I made two angry calls. The first woman said I would need to speak with a supervisor on Monday; the second woman not only called my local delivery folks, she called back to tell me when the paper would be delivered, called again to make sure I got it, and then left me her cell number in case the problem occurred again.<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0Kindness with employees:<\/p>\n
a. \u00a0In the 80s I ran a tech support company in London with 48 tech folks. Annually, I gave them $2000 to take a week off to renew themselves by attending any course they wanted (photography, cooking). I also required them to take off one day a month to do volunteer work. And at least four times I year went to their job sites (and they were not my direct reports), took them to lunch, and picked their brains on ways we could do better for them and for our clients. Their ideas were terrific. As a side note, I often ran into competitors at conferences who said they tried to hire my folks away yet couldn\u2019t pry them from my grip. \u201cWhat are you doing to those folks?\u201d I was just respecting them.<\/p>\n
b. \u00a0I hired a full time \u2018make nice\u2019 guy whose job it was to visit staff and clients on site to make sure the relationships and programming worked efficiently, nipping problems in the bud. With no fires to fight I had nothing to do but grow my company.<\/p>\n
THE HOW OF KINDNESS: USING LISTENING SKILLS ENHANCE RELATIONSHIPS<\/p>\n
I believe the process of listening is one of the skills that will enable us to be kind. Not only do we need to set up client Listening Conferences and staff Listening Hours, we must hear what\u2019s being said between the lines. My new book What? Did you really say what I think I heard? <\/i><\/b><\/a>explains whatever we listen for determines what we hear. So rather than merely listen for problems, we must listen for the patterns in the problems: Lots of turnover? What are we ignoring that can be resolved? Bottom line decreasing due to competition? What are clients telling us that we haven\u2019t been listening for?<\/p>\n Through the years, with clients and staff, coachees and colleagues, I have found the biggest obstacle to authentic communication is how imperfectly we hear others. Far too often we enter conversations with a bias and miss what\u2019s being conveyed that falls outside the range of expectation. Imagine if we approach our conversations with the bias of kindness:<\/p>\n How can we monetize kindness with staff and clients? It\u2019s possible to make money AND be kind. Let\u2019s begin the conversation.<\/p>\n I can develop Listening Skills programs to support kindness and the bottom line for your company. Read my digital book What? Did you really say what I think I heard? <\/i><\/b>\u00a0on www.didihearyou.com<\/a> where you\u2019ll also find Learning Tools<\/a>. Contact me to discuss coaching, training, and online assessments to help your folks monetize kindness. sharondrew@sharondrewmorgen.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With little ability to read during my bout with the flu over Christmas, I listened to NPR. What I heard was hopeful: programs discussing kindness. Kindness \u2013 not a word historically associated with corporations, those bastions of male verve \u2013 is now being equated with the bottom line. How times have changed. In the 90s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[30],"yoast_head":"\n\n