Everyone benefits from a culture of kindness at work. The objective ought to go beyond simply performing well. The intention should be to excel while advancing one another. So, certainly, kindness has the potential to revive workplace cultures and free them from the control of destructive, profit-driven ideologies.
Kindness isn’t a luxury; it’s a need when anxiety levels are high and morale is low. Kindness is more important than ever, especially at work, given the widespread layoffs, uncertain economy, and global tensions.
According to research, being kind to others benefits businesses. Being polite to your staff can assist you as a developing leader in retaining top talent, building a healthy culture, raising employee engagement, and boosting productivity. People’s feelings of fulfilment are increased, their self-esteem is raised, their self-evaluations are enhanced, and happy emotions are evoked when they receive a compliment or words of appreciation. Employees are happier and more motivated as a result.
Kindness may be a useful quality that says a lot about your character, devotion, and long-term value whether you’re just starting your career, beginning a new job, or moving into people management.
Culture usually occurs by accident in businesses. The result of years of decision-making is culture. The leaders mould the culture. The board and the executives that oversee the budgets, recruiting procedures, and success metrics shape it. People who manage the managers and lead the leaders form culture.
Company culture is significantly influenced by leadership. It’s almost as if the generations of workers inherit the leadership genes. These genes continue to have a significant impact on how the company develops.
Every child is taught to treat others as they would like to be treated. But as adults, we don’t always behave in this way. Our society is developing at an ever-increasing rate. Most of us have engaged in behaviours like using smartphones while others are speaking and being impolite to customer service representatives.
Perhaps because being rude is much simpler. Being “kind” requires effort. Being compassionate means pausing to consider our words and their delivery. Most people don’t even realise how disrespectful they are. We are not receiving any comments on our behaviour/approach therefore we realize the negative impact on other people.
We are aware of when we are being nice or unkind in our own lives. We are able to quickly distinguish between kind and unkind treatment. So how does a business go about creating what refers to as “a culture of kindness”? Another question is why a business would want to do this in the first place.
In 1980, Whole Foods was founded by 19 people. In the United States, there were less than six natural food markets. The success of Whole Foods is the best example of how American consumption has changed recently. Consumers genuinely want a kind food culture in today’s world due to the increased knowledge of what we eat. Products from Whole Foods are infused with their culture and beliefs. They have a reputation for treating their employees fairly and attempting to improve the environment. A kind culture cannot be faked. If you want to promote your brand as “kind,” your culture must do so.
Do we use this chance to reiterate what is evident? Do we hurry to gain the attention we yearned for as kids, occasionally at the cost of others feelings? Or do we decide to hold our peace and be considerate? Do we let our competitive natures fool us into believing that the only way to succeed is to crush your subordinates?
Even though it may seem like too much work to establish a culture at all, let alone one built on kindness and compassion, doing so really makes the workplace a much more pleasant place to be. Being kind can pay off. Amazon had $89 billion in revenue in 2014. It is the sixth-most visited website worldwide. According to James L. Heskett, a professor at the Harvard Business School, this 20-year-old firm, Fortune 35, is an example of how good cultures can account for half of the difference in operating profit between organisations.
Businesses with a “culture of kindness” generally succeed better. Why then don’t more businesses prioritise creating strong cultures from the start? Perhaps as a result of the way culture is frequently treated. Most businesses are laser-focused.
Therefore suggestions could wrap up to simple ideas such as empowering your employees by building a culture of Autonomy and Trust, Training your employees to become the leaders who will harvest the culture of Kindness, and supplying your employees with opportunities to give back to the community. Team development activities like corporate volunteer days are beneficial. The number of businesses that use the one-for-one concept is increasing today. For every product sold, they donate.
Inspired by Blake Michellem/Forbes and Andrew Swinand/Harvard
Why a Corporate Culture of Kindness is great for your Brand?
Are you interested in enhancing your Business Culture?
Call us or email us: info@advancecareer.com.cy 25-028580