Be kind

By GamdAi Management ◦ March 30, 2020

Kindness

Be kind

Great managers also realize that kindness is the ultimate performance enhancer. The more kindness you show your employees, the more they will give you, and the more they give you, the more they will have. The best way to get an employee to go beyond the call of duty is to go beyond the call of duty yourself.

Great managers realize that kindness is the ultimate performance enhancer.

A simple act of kindness can make an employee’s day. Bob Sutton, a Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule, was once called in by a software company to help them deal with a particularly bad employee. He made a suggestion to the CEO, who had been trying in vain to get the employee to change his attitude. The CEO took the suggestion and told the employee that he was considering firing him, since he had failed to follow the company’s code of conduct. The CEO then told the employee that if he agreed to make a few changes, he would give him another chance. The employee agreed to the terms.

The CEO then told the employee that he would be keeping him on, but that he would be looking over his shoulder the entire time to make sure that he was following the rules. The CEO said that if the employee didn’t follow the rules, he would be fired. The CEO then got up, walked around the desk, shook the employee’s hand, and told him he was glad to be giving him another chance.

The employee, who was filled with rage and couldn’t believe that he was being given a second chance, left the office in a daze. On his way out, the CEO told him that when he was ready to start working again, he would be in his office. The employee thanked him, but said that he wasn’t sure he was ready to start working again. The CEO smiled, told him that he was ready to start working again, and then left the room.

The employee left the building, got into his car, and began to drive away. As he drove, he began to cry. He realized that he had been given a second chance, and that he had been shown kindness even though he had never extended that same courtesy to anyone else. He knew that he would never again mistreat anyone in the office.