Is Being Nice Important?

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks, stars on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and is worth an estimated $3.9 billion. If you ask the businessman what it takes to succeed, though, he doesn’t just point to work ethic and negotiation skills. As Cuban told Vanity Fair in a 2018 interview with the “Shark Tank” cast, a simple skill that anyone can develop can go a long way: “One of the most underrated skills in business right now is being nice. Nice sells.”
Soulaima Gourani tells CNBC Make It, what makes you most valuable is your ability to cooperate and connect with others: “A lot of jobs are going to disappear, but the thing that we will always have that is more important is your emotional intelligence.” She defines that as having a “good understanding of yourself, self-control, empathy and a natural understanding of people’s decisions, needs and desires.” She adds: “If you can handle people’s diversity — people of a different age, different personalities, or educational backgrounds, for example — and you can handle the conflict that comes with that, you will be the highest paid, most valuable employee in the company.”  To put it bluntly, at the end of the day, “people hate dealing with people who are jerks,” Cuban wrote in a 2014 Entrepreneur article. “It’s always easier to be nice than to be a jerk. Don’t be a jerk.”

Both Jim Collins in his books, Built to Last, and Good to Great; and Simon Sinek in his book Leaders Eat Last reinforce this. If you haven’t read these books I highly recommend them. Jim Collins describes level 5 leaders who take companies from good to great without focusing on themselves but rather what needs to be done.

Emotional Intelligence or EQ has a major impact on the performance of an individual and a company.Too often, it is assumed that EQ means expressing feelings or being sympathetic. That is not the case, it means:

• Being aware of what impacts performance
• Giving good feedback
• Self-awareness
• Self- confidence
• Seeing ourselves as we really are in the world, perception
• Achievement to enhance business success
• Commitment to the mission
• Viewing setbacks and mistakes as opportunities to learn from and fix
• Seeing situations from the client’s view and showing empathy, as in “I’m sorry that happened to you”

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to use your emotions in a positive constructive way in relationships with others.

Unlike IQ, EQ can be  developed and enhanced.  How is yours????? If you are interested in finding out I can send you some check lists. Just ask

Being “nice” means means understanding who you are and how you can empower others to achieve their goals which helps you achieve yours.