Be Nice!!!

I married the nicest person ever! My wife Jan was a great mom of 12; two by birth and ten by adoption. She was also world-renowned surgeon and healer. Over the years, thousands of people told me that she was always nice to everyone she met. Her niceness never took away from her success as a physician. It actually improved it! There is a lesson to be learned by Jan’s example, especially in my industry.

This year marks my 28th year providing technology solutions to the hospitality and foodservice industries. In my work with my team, we are constantly under pressure to maintain a high level of service for our clients. Their expectations make a lot of sense. Great service is central to their business and they know what happens when they don’t get it right.

Think about your own experiences in hotels, airlines, and restaurants. Maybe you’re checking into a hotel and the front desk clerk cannot find your reservation. Or, your upgraded seat was downgraded because of an airplane configuration change. It could be that the server at the restaurant who forgot your water (this seems to happen frequently for me). It’s easy for us to get frustrated. When we get angry at the front desk clerk, airline attendant, or server, what do we actually accomplish? Not much. But when you treat these people with niceness even when (or especially when) things go wrong, usually nice things happen. Being nice helps people solve problems easier and often faster, too. Being nice also helps everyone to avoid creating new problems that can happen when we lose our patience or our tempers.

This “nice” factor is not unique to the hospitality and foodservice industries. It really applies to all industries. Customers come in all different types. My customers are usually in operations, IT, and finance. They might get frustrated at a feature gap or a support concern. What do we do in response? We listen, follow up, and be nice. If we get angry and defensive with them, what’s likely to happen? We risk turning them off even more. That makes it harder to communicate with them, and to solve the problem that’s caused them to feel frustrated in the first place. In being nice and empathetic to their situation, they tend to be more understanding and helpful in return. They’re more likely to want to work with us to solve the problem at hand rather than punishing us for it. This makes for better relationships with customers all around.

 This value of being nice is true when dealing with the competition in my business, too. I remember a football coach telling me that I could not be nice and be successful in football. I always felt differently. I knew that I could knock my opponent on his rear end, and them help him up. That’s how I rolled back then. That’s how I roll now. When you are in a competitive situation, be nice to your competitors. On a social media platform like LinkedIn, I will sometimes even “like” a success story posted by a competitor. Some people view that as weakness. I view this as strength. 

 So here’s my takeaway. Continue to be nice in all things, whether work or at play, with customers or competition. “Nice guys finish last” is not my experience. In fact, my instinct in being nice to people is how I know that I’m a confident and successful leader.