How do you show kindness at work?

If you are a business owner or are in a position of influence in your company, you’re going to want to read today’s blog. I’m going to tell you about a book I read a number of years ago that helped influence the way I ran my company and interacted with clients and suppliers. I guarantee it will give you some ideas for this week’s “random acts of kindness” challenge.

Just to recap, this month’s first blog about the random acts of kindness challenge was on sharpening your joy habit of kindness by first showing love and kindness to yourself. I shared some ideas on how you could not only bring a smile to your own face, but by elevating your personal joy vibration you could also help shift the frequency of others in your orbit.

Last week’s random acts of kindness challenge was directed towards children – either your children, grandchildren, or those of friends or family members.  Once again, I gave some suggestions for things you could try that would help model kindness to this next important generation of leaders.   

Today’s offering will challenge you to think about the kindness you offer to your friends, neighbours, and especially your co-workers.  After all, most people spend more time with their work families than they do with their own families.

Now for the book I mentioned.

It’s a little book called “The Power of Nice” by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. It came out in 2006 and when I read it, I immediately purchased copies for my staff and over the years I have gifted copies to many business owners I know and respect.

At the time of the book, the authors were busy running their own successful advertising agency in the U.S. and practicing the “power of nice” in their own company.  By practicing kindness, they said that “nice companies have lower employee turnover, lower recruitment costs, and higher productivity.” They also went on to say that “nice people live longer, are healthier, and make more money.”

There is plenty of evidence these days to support these claims and I believe that a new movement of “conscious” business will eventually replace the old unsustainable “you or me” mindset with a new model of cooperation, fairness, and trust.

But it all starts with going back to the basics of simply being nice!

Here are a couple of “Nice Cubes” from the book “The Power of Nice” to help you “exercise your nice muscles”:

Every day for the next week, do five nice things that have no immediate payoff for you.  Say thank you to others.  Ask those you meet about their lives.  Does your cleaning woman have grandchildren? Donate money to charity.  Compliment a stranger.  The point of this is not to imagine that the cabdriver you are generously tipping will someday run a major corporation. It is to simply get into the habit of being nice – and rediscover how good that makes you feel.

For one day, try to say as little as possible.  Try to keep the focus away from yourself.  Where you’re tempted to tell a story, ask a question.  Where you’re tempted to say “Oh, that same thing happened to me,“ ask, “How did that make you feel?”  Don’t be obnoxious about it.  If someone asks how you feel about the new sports stadium the city is building, answer the question.  But then bring the conversation back to the other person’s opinion. At the end of the day, make a list of everything that you learned.  How much would you have missed if you had spent the time talking about yourself?

In addition to the two preceding book examples, I would encourage you to try a few of these random acts of kindness with your friends, neighbours, or co-workers:

• Give an unexpected compliment to someone – make it genuine.
• Tell someone one thing that you admire about them – again make it authentic.
• Bring an extra muffin or coffee to work for one of your co-workers.
• Write an uplifting note of encouragement to a friend who is struggling.
• Offer to pick up groceries or run an errand for a busy mom on your block.
• Offer to babysit for free.
• At work, post an anonymous uplifting sticky note in the lunch-room.
• Be generous with your time and knowledge.
• Mentor someone.
• Call someone you haven’t connected with in a while rather than emailing or texting.
• Write a thank-you note to someone who has helped you along the way, either in life or in your career.
• At work, in your house or as I do – in my car, post a note that says “This is a complaint-free zone”. It’s amazing how the energy shifts when kindness and gratitude prevail over gossip and victimhood.
• When faced with a difference of opinion between yourself and someone else, instead of trying to adamantly defend your position, you have a choice. You can either be right or you can be kind.  You can’t do both.  Try kindness this time.

There you have it.  A few ideas to get you going this week.

Remember, when you shift your focus away from yourself and onto extending kindness towards others, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you become a more conscious human being. And that’s when the magic really starts to happen.

You see, kindness and love attract more of the same. Simply put, kindness is like a boomerang. It always returns.

So this week, I ask that you throw your boomerang of kindness with gusto. Throw it for all to benefit, including yourself. And that my deserving friend, is joyful living!

Love from your Joy Mama,

P.S.    If you haven’t already read my book Being Joy™, it’s a simple 40-day practice of replacing old self-defeating beliefs with new empowering joy habits. As your vibrational frequency increases, you’ll not only experience more joy, but you’ll also be a beacon of hope for others who have forgotten their own joy.  Please join me on this important mission by ordering your copy today!

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Images courtesy of Pixabay.