Did you ever hear that? If so, you probably heard it when someone was doing something that was unfair or worse. When we are in business, or a participant in it, we are presented with many choices between expediency toward short-term goals and treating people right, being decent, or kind.
Would it be worth people walking around feeling and talking about how you were unfair, cold, or took advantage of them even if you got that one step ahead? For me, no.
People are involved in businesses. And whenever people are involved, it is personal.
Sometimes we have to discontinue business relationships. Sometimes we need to replace a team member. Sometimes we have to object to someone’s behavior or performance. But HOW we do it makes all the difference. If we do these things while being kind, sensitive, showing empathy, listening, explaining, or making a gesture of sincere appreciation or goodwill, we can keep business relationships positive and thwart the negative karma that will come back around from people who feel mistreated by us.
This is so true and I hope the leaders in our industry are reading. Look at your company reviews on Glassdoor.com or other job boards – you can quickly learn if you are heeding Larry’s advice/words.
We just had an employee give his notice. The employee is instrumental in nearly $1M of business each year and has hundreds of customer relationships. When the owner dragged his feet on talking to him after he gave notice, his two weeks notice quickly went to one week (essentially he quit). Talk to your people, especially if they have hundreds of customer relationships. Don’t just let good people walk out the door because your loss will be someone else’s gain. They are human. Treat them that way.
I agree we should always treat people right, but when it comes to being “personal”, I am reminded of the Four Agreements.