Shawnee Love   •  
February 21, 2018

I recently overheard someone telling a friend that as a manager, he was “not paid to be nice”.

While that statement may be accurate, it isn’t wholly true.

My experience is that people who are nice are able to get their employees to do things for them more easily.  And since a manager is paid to get things done, I think you could argue being nice is one part of a manager’s job. Saying that, I would not necessarily include “is a nice person” in the job description. I actually think niceness is a quality which organizations either value or they don’t.  If they value niceness, nice exists in the way they operate and how people in that organization work together.  It will be evident in their daily interactions with everyone.

To be clear, being nice doesn’t mean being a doormat and letting everyone walk all over you.  You can have boundaries and be nice.   In fact, telling people what you expect is a great way to be nice, because knowing what to expect and deliver enables people to be successful.

Being nice also means you:

• Respect people,
• Are polite and courteous,
• Act fairly and honestly,
• Are helpful and kind,
• Are interested in people and their ideas,
• Listen,
• Care about your people,
• Trust people to do their jobs, and
• Say good morning, good bye, please and thank you, especially thank you.

Being nice is pretty simple, and it is an investment in the relationship which pays off dividends everyday.