Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval
06/01/2007
A few years ago, our agency received a phone call from one of Linda’s old coworkers. Twenty years earlier, the woman worked as a junior account director at a leading New York advertising agency where Linda was the group creative director. We agreed to meet with the caller, assuming she was looking for a job.
We were completely wrong about this woman’s intentions. During the past two decades, she had moved through the ranks to become the senior account director at a large corporation—and she had several million dollars’ worth of business to offer the Kaplan Thaler Group. Why us? She reminded us that during her early years in the industry, the company’s creative directors were notorious for avoiding the account folks—particularly those on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder. Linda, by contrast, had always treated her with courtesy and respect, and she wanted to work with people like that.
We were surprised to learn that basic decency can pay such huge dividends. |
Our best and brightest leaders understand this. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg lists his home number in the phone book, and sometimes answers calls himself. Dell Computer founder Michael Dell takes the time to respond to 200 emails per day from employees and customers. And Boeing CEO James McNerney makes a point to learn the names of his company’s assistants and mailroom clerks. These executives understand that there are no "little" people.
On the other hand, there are individuals, like ousted Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli, who simply don’t get it. Nardelli alienated employees, shareholders and stock analysts alike with his abrasive management style. The most famous example of his disrespectful behavior came at Home Depot’s 2006 annual meeting, when he delivered a strongly worded half-hour speech—and then refused to allow shareholders to ask general questions.
Even polite leaders are vulnerable to the idea that a high rank cancels out thoughtless behavior. A well-known CEO, who shall remain nameless (we are the authors of a book about being nice, after all), received an invitation to a bar mitzvah from one of her employees. She forgot to RSVP, and a few weeks later the employee’s wife called, asking if she would attend the party. The CEO apologized, saying she’d be out of town the next weekend.
There was an awkward pause on the line: "Well, actually it’s tomorrow." The CEO immediately regretted her carelessness, but didn’t think she would suffer any consequences from it. Cut to several years later. The CEO’s daughter applied to an exclusive private high school. As she read the list of the board of directors, she was horrified to see the name of that same employee’s wife. Needless to say, the school did not accept her daughter.
We’re not saying that every time you’re cantankerous to a neighbor or treat a hotel maid with indifference that you will suffer some karmic punishment. The problem is that you never know what actions could come back to haunt you. It has been our experience that when you start making modest, unexpected efforts on others’ behalf—writing a quick email recommending an acquaintance for a job, helping a neighbor get her art show covered by the local paper—the number of pleasant surprises in your life will increase exponentially.
At the post-Nardelli Home Depot, new CEO Frank Blake, under pressure to prove his mettle, has cut his own pay and reinstated the company’s old inverted pyramid—which places the customer at the top and the CEO at the bottom. Gone are the free catered lunch buffets in the executive suites—the higher-ups now have to purchase their meals in the cafeteria like everyone else. Blake also gave a $3,000 "fun fund" to every store, instructing managers to spend it on something enjoyable for the staff, like a party or outing. Blake’s nice-guy attitude may not create a quick upswing for the company’s slumping stock price, but we are pretty sure he’ll see a payoff somewhere down the line—perhaps when some Home Depot salesclerk grows up and starts a successful business, and remembers that nice CEO.
Linda Kaplan Thaler is CEO and Robin Koval is president of the
Kaplan Thaler Group ad agency. They are coauthors of The Power
of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World With Kindness.