When I started a business more than 15 years ago, I had lunch with the founder/owner/president of an international environmental engineering company. This company was, at the time, my biggest client. I had once been a long-term employee of the firm as well. So, I was bit nervous and a little intimidated. He asked me some questions – and then gave me some extremely solid business advice that I have never forgotten.
In essence, he said “Look, you have been and always are very responsive to the requests our firm makes of you, but being a consultant is more than that. As a consultant you have to be willing to speak up and tell me when you think our company is possibly making a mistake or missing an opportunity.”
This advice rocked my world. I suddenly realized that simply following instructions, helping people out of jams, meeting deadlines, providing customer-focused services was not enough. You must be frank. And that is still true today. It doesn’t matter what your business (service or product) is, really; to be successful you have to be alert and smart enough to see the potholes as well as the little pot of gold down the road. And you have to be willing to speak up about what you see ahead.
But speaking up frankly (or delivering some unpleasant information or feedback) doesn’t mean you have to be gruff, impolite, indignant, arrogant, untruthful or terse. One of my friends in Human Resources used to tell me, “I don’t care WHAT you are saying, but for heaven’s sakes, say it with a SMILE.” It isn’t always that cut and dried or easy, but I firmly believe being nice and pleasant is unbelievably important in communications and business.
I was reminded of this when I read a recent blog post by Peter Shankman. (Who in my opinion is one of the few social media and marketing “gurus” out there). His message is so very clear: by being nice, you can keep existing customers/clients/business AND win new ones.
Another blog post about identity I spotted on LinkedIn touched on this concept as well. As Reid Hoffman stated, “Our actions shape our identity, and in turn, our identity shapes our actions.”
Please don’t interpret my message to mean that one can never have a bad day or feel tense, or short on time. We all of have those days – and should be allowed a free pass or three. And yet, I am always surprised at how many people seem to forget basic human courtesy. Of course, in politics today we see examples of boorish behavior all the time. Even in the relatively harmonious Vermont state legislature it’s been an issue lately.
I will close this rather Pollyanna blog post with one final point about being nice. It can go both ways – being nice sometimes means just keeping everyone in the loop (or, as my mom used to say – “don’t leave anyone feeling left out.”) The clients I’ve worked with the most effectively have been just as nice, truthful, and pleasant as they can be – even when the news hasn’t been good or easy to address. But when the communications flow freely and politely, we all win.
