Nice may not be good and kind

New research confirms that greater employee happiness results in higher productivity without sacrificing quality. Researchers did a number of experiments to test the idea that happy employees work harder, and they found happiness made people about 12% more productive.

The research concludes that companies like Google have invested more in employee support and employee satisfaction has risen as a result. For Google, it rose by 37%; they know what they’re talking about. In scientifically-controlled conditions, making workers happier really pays off.

In light of today’s economic landscape, it’s more important than ever for companies to have happy employees as they’re generally more productive. When employees are loyal and engaged in the company, profits are higher. Conversely, when people feel unmotivated or undervalued, the company suffers. Additionally, studies show that engaged employees miss work less, perform better and are more supportive of changes as well as willing to make them happen.

Keeping employees happy in any economy is hard work because happiness is, primarily, an “inside job”. In other words, happiness comes from within a person. However friends, family and employment can add to or detract from someone’s happiness level. So if the workplace is stressful or painful things are happening, such as politicking, back-stabbing and gossiping, employees’ productivity goes down.

Double-edged sword

However, don’t be too quick to jump on the happy bandwagon, proclaiming yourself that nice-guy boss and going out of your way to make every employee happy and content. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re a lousy boss if you fail to make every employee happy and content. Happiness in the workplace can be a double-edged sword. Yes, having happy employees is critical to the success of any company but there’re more ways to make employees happy and content than bending over backwards to put a smile on your workers’ faces. Remember, certain nice-guy tactics can backfire. As with everything else, balance is key to ensuring we cultivate the right kind of happy and contented employees.

Bosses must not subscribe to the myth that employees should be kept happy 24/7. As a boss, you’re neither able to nor expected to be in charge of your employees’ happiness every second of every workday. Everybody loves to be liked – who doesn’t? And unless you’re the type of boss who revels in tyranny, it’s only natural to seek the favour of your employees. But there’s a big difference between engaging with employees and fawning over them.

Probably out of guilt associated with being a strong-handed boss, managers are often afraid to pull rank for fear they’ll fall from grace with their subordinates and spoil team camaraderie. They’re afraid that others will think they’re a jerk so they try hard – in fact too hard, to the point of desperation – and in the process suffer from nice-guy conflicts.

Overly nice overrated

Quite frankly, being overly nice is overrated. Being human, employees have tons of reasons – real, imagined or even made up – for being less than enthusiastic on any given day. If their discontent has something to do with working conditions, you’ve got your work cut out for you. But if it’s something to do with their personal lives, well that’s really not your concern – unless it starts to interfere with their work.

If you want to be an effective – as opposed to good – manager, you must debunk the common myth that the nice-guy boss is the best kind of boss. Resist the temptation to be everybody’s best friend – one who feels honour-bound to wear a smile at all times, say “yes” all the time, be pally with every employee and generally sacrifice objectivity to artifice. Although it may boost your ego, you must keep in mind that being liked and being effective are not always the same thing.

In fact, being a nice-guy boss all the time can be counter-productive and even hurt your effectiveness and image. For instance, if you’re the type who doesn’t want to rock the boat even amidst a tempest at your workplace, your employees won’t bring serious issues to your attention.

If you’re unrealistically positive every day, you’re going to give the impression that you don’t want to hear bad news or receive constructive criticism, however badly it may be needed.

What can you do if you’re caught in this nice-guy boss outlook? You need to accept the fact that being a nice guy may sound noble and some people may compliment you for it but overall, it’s not a healthy or productive way of being. Even after you realise being nice doesn’t always work, the nice-guy paradigm will exist in your cognitive schemes, from where it influences your thinking and disempowers you. You’ll need to consciously change your thinking and weed it out.

I’m not advocating you should not be a positive, well-liked and optimistic boss; the danger comes when replacing things like objectivity and honesty with artifice. Focus on creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, rather than on being liked no matter what. You’ve a choice of management styles to apply and while you’ll probably find that some combination will get you the best results, there’re still stereotypes that you want to avoid and one of them is the nice-guy-boss syndrome.

Okay to disagree

To be an effective boss, you must stop agreeing with everyone and everything. However, this doesn’t mean you should disagree or argue for its own sake; instead be your true self, with your own opinions and preferences. Let’s say a team member comes to you with a totally different opinion of how a certain project should be carried out, which you think is too time-consuming; you need to disagree with him and explain why.

Of course, don’t be an obnoxious, tyrannical, bad-guy boss by lecturing him that it’s your way or no way. Not every disagreement is an argument and a difference of opinion can lead to interesting discussions in which you learn a great deal about how a person thinks and feels. Hear him out respectfully so that he doesn’t feel you’re being difficult.

Remember, you don’t have to be a people-pleaser to be a good boss. Don’t bend over backwards just to accommodate everyone except yourself. It’s okay to be a kind person who loves to help others but don’t be so humble that you become a slave to everyone else’s needs and expectations. Strive to form mutually-beneficial relationships with your employees, colleagues, customers and others with whom you interact in the course of your work.

Learn to say no, especially when you don’t feel comfortable doing something or if you feel it doesn’t benefit the other party. As the saying goes, you need to be cruel to be kind – at least occasionally.

Watch out for manipulative employees who will make you feel guilty in a very subtle way, to influence you to say “yes” to them. Draw the line clearly so that these workplace shenanigans don’t exploit your soft and weak spots.

Do be nice if you must but beware of nice-guy tactics as they may backfire. Remember, being nice is not always good – balance it with firmness, assertiveness and even “cruelty” to be kind!