When you think about kindness, do you believe it applies in business, or do you assume you need to be ruthless, wear sharp suits, and tread over anyone in your way? Or do you think otherwise? In this week's I Hate Numbers podcast, we explore the place of kindness in business and whether it truly belongs there.

The Essence of Kindness

Spoiler alert: kindness does have a place in business. But what exactly is kindness? Why is kindness not a weakness but a superpower? And how can we practice kindness in our business? Let's dive in and explore these concepts.

Defining Kindness in Business

When we think about kindness, we might envision helping people across the road, being kind to animals, and generally being nice and pleasant. While this is a reasonable definition, in business it extends beyond that. It involves treating others with respect, understanding, empathy, and care. Additionally, it means being direct and honest without being overly critical.

Kindness: A Strength, Not a Weakness

Although some might mistake kindness for weakness, it actually requires strength and courage to demonstrate it in business. Kindness is about building trust, which is the foundation of any successful business. When we are kind, we build loyalty with our team, clients, and partners, leading to long-term success.

Building Trust and Loyalty

Trust and loyalty are essential in business. They ensure that customers return, staff stay committed, and employees go the extra mile. A strong foundation of kindness fosters positive interactions with everyone involved in the business, from team members to suppliers and customers.

Constructive Feedback

Kindness in business also means having direct and honest conversations. This doesn't mean being rude or aggressive, but rather providing constructive feedback and being honest. People appreciate honesty and prefer constructive feedback, which helps them grow and improve.

Customer Relations

In customer relations, kindness plays a significant role. Customers remember how you make them feel more than the service you provide. A kind approach to customer service, managing boundaries carefully, and being straightforward with customers enhances their overall experience.

Stress Reduction

Kindness can also be a great stress reliever. The business world can be stressful, and having a positive, kind outlook can reduce stress, improving overall well-being and physical health. A welcoming environment is more conducive to productivity and satisfaction than one filled with tension.

Practicing Kindness in Business

Practicing kindness in business is fundamental and must be genuine. Small, sincere acts of kindness can make a significant difference. Active listening, showing appreciation, being empathetic, and offering help where needed are simple ways to incorporate kindness into daily business practices.

Effective Communication

Clear, open, and respectful communication is crucial. Avoid ambiguity and ensure your communication is honest and direct. This helps in building a positive working environment and fosters better relationships.

Conclusion

Kindness in business is a powerful tool that builds trust, creates a positive working environment, fosters teamwork, improves customer relations, reduces stress, and encourages personal growth. Far from being a weakness, kindness is a strength that drives success.

Call to Action

What acts of kindness will you demonstrate in your business? Check out our Numbers Know How community, where we provide resources for small businesses, artists, creatives, and coaches. Join us in creating a business community that collaborates, learns, and develops in a kind, positive environment. Until next week, stay kind.

Listen to the I Hate Numbers podcast for more insights and tips!

When you think about kindness, do you think it applies in business or do you think you have to be ruthless, wear those sharp suits, tread over anyone that you want to, be rude and indifferent just so success could be in your grasp or do you think otherwise? In this week's I Hate Numbers podcast, I'm going to be looking at the place of kindness and business and does it have a place?

Spoiler alert, it does. What is kindness exactly? Why kindness is not actually a weakness and why it's a superpower and how to go about practicing kindness in your business and the reasons and the benefits of that. Let's crack on with the podcast.

Now when we hear about kindness and when we think about kindness, we might have that image that flashes into our mind of helping people across the road, being kind to animals, which you absolutely should do, being nice and being pleasant, not wishing to disrupt, not wishing to be objectionable, and that is a reasonable working definition.

But when we come into the world of business here, kindness as a concept is an absolute must. Kindness is not about being weak. A lot of people mistake kindness unfairly for weakness. And that's far from it. If anything, it takes strength. It takes courage to demonstrate and bring kindness in a practical and a theoretical sense in your business.

Now, what does it actually mean? Well, kindness in business is again, it's not about being a walkover as such. It's not about agreeing with everybody, but it means about treating others with respect. Whether that's your staff team, freelancers you work with, potential clients, people you engage with on social media,

(that's a topic for another day), it's about understanding. It's about empathy. It's about care. It's about being straight and direct and honest and being critical overtly with a very negative agenda behind you. It's about being patient. When things go wrong. I know it's an easy thing to say, not always easy to demonstrate.

It's appreciating others genuinely, by the way, not just going through the motions. It's about appreciating the contribution that others make. Kindness isn't always about big gestures. It's often the little acts. Being courteous, being kind, a smile, a thank you, a helping hand - that can make such an incredible amount of difference.

It's about building trust and trust is the foundation of any successful business. Whatever your definition of success is to you and to others. When you're kind, you build trust with your team. Your clients, your partners, it leads to loyalty and loyalty is a great barrier to entry and it's a great USP to have.

Loyalty means that customers come back to you, staff stick with you, employees will go that extra mile for you as well. All businesses that have a mark of success have a very strong foundation and that's based on that interaction that's held with their team suppliers, customers and the like.

What else does kindness in business actually means? It means about having direct and straight conversations with people. And what by direct and straight, it's not a question of being rude and overtly aggressive. It's about speaking the truth, whether it's your truth, being honest with somebody, not agreeing with somebody when actually in reality you don't concur with that. People prefer constructive feedback, people appreciate response. People expect others or ideally would like others to treat them with some even handedness and to be honest with them. Now in the realm of customer relations, customers remember how you make them feel. They certainly appreciate the service delivery you've had, but we all as human beings remember how people made us feel as opposed to what they've done for us.

It might seem a paradox, but it's true. A kind approach to customer service, managing your boundaries carefully, being straight with customers, you know, is an element of kindness as well. Now, another probably not that well talked about, is that kindness can actually be a great stress reliever for yourself

as well as the people around you. Now, the business world is a very stressful or can be a very stressful environment. I've been running my own businesses I Hate Numbers and Numbers Knowhow for 30 years and there are moments when it all feels overwhelming and there are moments where it feels more calm. And having a positive kind outlook and approach and a demeanour is a great stress reducer and that is not only good for your wellbeing, but it's also good for your physical health as well. It's also good for the people around you.

It's also good for the people that interact with you as well. We operate better as human beings. Yes, with a little bit of stress, but something where we have a welcoming environment as opposed to an environment that makes us feel quite nervy, quite timid. Now, as I said earlier, kindness is not about just being nice.

It's about recognising and fostering potential in others and yourself, about giving that constructive feedback and supporting where relevant personal development. Now there are other spin offs of being kind that's in terms of being known in your business circle, boosting your reputation, you can make better decisions here because you have clarity of thought here and you're not overruled by stress.

Now, in the world of Al Capone, some might see kindness as a weakness, but it's a strength that drives success. And Al Capone was quoted as saying, “Don't mistake my kindness for weakness.” Even dentists are known to be kind. Now, how do you practice kindness in business? Well, there are a number of things you can do, and I think, for me, fundamentally, it's got to be genuine.

So, if you're just going through the motions, you think you have to say hello to somebody. You have to be nice to somebody but you don't actually generally feel it. It's going to come across as insincere. So small micro steps are the best way going forward. It's not overtly complicated. Listen. We have two ears, one mouth.

A lot of us tend to use the one single object, the mouth, and less of the ears. So listen actively. Take a breath. Pay attention to what others are saying and you need to be genuine and show that you appreciate their input. If you find that very difficult, maybe that's something you should work on for yourself.

Show appreciation, recognise and celebrate the achievements no matter how small they are. They may seem small and insignificant to you, but they can have a great deal of meaning to the person who's provided that input. Now appreciation doesn't necessarily mean monetary rewards, it's acknowledgement. Be empathetic, and that means to stand in somebody else's shoes and try and see the world through their spectacles.

You may not actually agree with their view of the world, but if you don't actually have some empathy, you're always going to have that disconnect between you and the people around you. Offer help. Where it's needed, step in, lend a hand. Communication is really important here. Be clear, be open, be straight, be direct.

Try and avoid ambiguity. Keep your communication honest and respectful. So what can we conclude folks? Well, kindness in business is a very powerful tool. It builds trust. Creates a nice working environment, fosters teamwork, has a positive impact on customer relations, reduces stress, and encourages not only your own personal growth, but those around you as well.

Far from being a weakness, kindness is a strength to drive success. Let me leave you with a final quote by Pancho Ramos-Stierle. If you want to be a rebel, be kind. What acts of kindness will you demonstrate in your business, folks? Now, check out the show notes for a link to our Numbers Knowhow Community, where not only do we provide wonderful resources for small businesses, artists, creators and coaches, but creating a business community where people collaborate, people can offer their own services,

Learn, develop, have sustainable businesses in a nice kind positive environment. Until next week folks, stay kind. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.