Kindness in the workplace has several advantages:
- Creating a positive environment that fosters high morale among employees
- Strengthen professional relationships
- Improves communication
- Facilitates team collaboration
- Reduce stress
- Reinforce employees' sense of belonging to the company
Ultimately, kindness can play a key role in creating a healthy corporate culture and contributing to overall productivity.
How to practice kindness in the workplace.
Acknowledge and appreciate:
Express gratitude to colleagues for their hard work and contributions. Whatever project/mandate/deliverable you're working on, it's rare that you're working on it alone. Acknowledging the work of others is of course about being fair, but it also makes others want to repeat the experience, knowing that their work will be appreciated.
Help when you need it:
Offer help to a colleague who is struggling with a task or who is overwhelmed. Everyone appreciates a helping hand to get their head above water. The person who benefits from this help will be more inclined to do the same next time with a colleague in difficulty (it could be you, for that matter).
Be a good listener:
Take the time to actively listen to colleagues' concerns and ideas. When a colleague comes to us in the hope of finding a sympathetic ear, the least we can do is not continue working on our computer or looking at our cell phone. You should also avoid trying to figure out what to say when someone speaks to you, as this distracts you and prevents you from really listening to what they're saying.
Share resources:
Share information, advice or resources that could be useful to a colleague. Sharing knowledge or information that will make my colleagues' work easier is a method that benefits both you and the company as a whole. It's also a way of bonding, boosting self-esteem and acquiring new knowledge.
Foster a positive environment:
Encourage positive and constructive language, contributing to a pleasant working atmosphere. Choose your words so as not to offend, smile, say hello and thank you, suggest an idea instead of imposing it. This shows that we respect our colleagues and has a direct impact on the quality of our collaboration.
Celebrate success:
Congratulate colleagues on their achievements and share the joy of the team's successes. It's a good way of reminding people that their efforts have not been in vain, and that they are recognized and appreciated.
Respect divergent opinions:
Acknowledge and respect different points of view, thus encouraging a diversity of ideas. We could even go so far as to encourage debate. Not for the purpose of confrontation, but to ensure that each proposal or idea is evaluated and that the most relevant is selected. This form of critical discussion is not intended to denigrate, but to aim for improvement.
Be courteous and polite:
Adopt a respectful attitude towards all team members, regardless of their hierarchical position. The main reason people stay with an organization (if their salary is fair) is the quality of the human environment.
These acts of kindness contribute to a positive work climate, strengthen professional relationships and improve job satisfaction.
Although the benefits of kindness in the workplace are not always directly monetary, they do contribute indirectly to positive financial results for the company.
What are the economic benefits of kindness?
Increased productivity:
A positive work environment fosters employee motivation and commitment, which translates into increased productivity1. You work well with your colleagues, your efforts are appreciated and recognized... you'll give 110%.
Reduced staff turnover:
Positive relationships between colleagues and a caring corporate culture contribute to talent retention (if you feel good about your job and your organization, you'll be less likely to look elsewhere for greener grass), reducing the costs associated with recruitment and training.
Better collaboration:
Kindness encourages collaboration and effective communication, which improves the efficiency of work teams. Let's take a counter-example: who wants to make an effort with a colleague who's unfriendly, never happy and never says thank you? Nobody, which will lead to procrastination, demotivation and an incentive to cut corners.
Improved customer satisfaction:
Happy, motivated employees tend to offer better customer service, which influences customer loyalty and, consequently, revenues.
To sum up
Although these benefits don't translate directly into immediate financial gains, they do help to create an environment conducive to the company's long-term growth and economic stability.
Unfeigned kindness, which has been scientifically studied for many years, is a positive behavior for oneself and others. It is not a weakness, a kind of submission to others, but rather a strength that enables us to open up to them. Let's not forget that true kindness breeds reciprocity.
In an age of continuous improvement and constant optimization, we sometimes forget that a company's success depends primarily on the individuals and teams that make it up.
Demonstrating mutual aid, benevolence and kindness has now become an indispensable element in pulling an entire team upwards.
In a constantly changing world, showing kindness to others, whether through simple or more important gestures, reflects empathy and solidarity. We sometimes forget that these altruistic acts are what make us human.
Professional Relations: Communicating Effectively in All Circumstances
