Can You Be Both Kind and Super Successful?

There are many business people who believe that in order to be successful, you need to have tough, "take no prisoners" attitude. There are also many people who are kind and generous "to a fault," allowing others to take advantage of them, and unable to enjoy the fruits of success. Is it possible to be both kind and successful? I believe that not only is it possible, it is the best path towards success, happiness and fulfillment.

In our increasingly fast-paced world that has heavily transitioned online and become taken over by social media, sometimes people forget how important human interaction is, and specifically how important positive human interaction is. But it is our people skills and relationships with others that will ultimately determine our success or failure.

Throughout my personal and professional life, I have studied and tried to better understand what it means to be a likeable person and how that can lead to great business success. I interviewed Jill Lublin, author of The Profit of Kindness: How to Influence Others, Establish Trust, and Build Lasting Relationships to find out more about the ROI of kindness and how it truly does lead to a stronger business. I interviewed dozens of super successful CEO's for my best-reviewed but (sadly) poorest-selling book Likeable Business: Why Today's Consumers Demand More and How Leaders Can Deliver. After over a decade of studying this, I've come to believe more than ever before that Kindness and Success can co-exist- and in fact, is actually optimal!

For this reason, I started a club on Clubhouse called the Likeable Business Club, where many successful and likeable business leaders will host weekly shows about a wide variety of topics that teach you how to be both kind and super successful in business and in life.

Likeable Business dives into the most important principles that I’ve studied, to not only become a better leader but to build and lead more successful businesses. You can be both kind and successful through the application of these 11 principles:

1. Listening

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Learn more about why the best CEO’s listen more here. 

2. Storytelling

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you’re telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video, storytelling wins customers. 

3. Authenticity

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow’s leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together. 

4. Transparency

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More importantly, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night, unworried about what you said to whom. A happier leader is a more productive one. 

5. Teamwork

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

6. Responsiveness

The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral spark plug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.

7. Adaptability

There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.

8. Passion

Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.

9. Surprise and Delight

Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money. For example, a smile; we all like to be delighted, and surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.

10. Simplicity

The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity, in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.

11. Gratefulness

Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Platinum Rule: More important than any other principle, treat others as they’d like to be treated. 

Every individual has different standards and ways they wish to be treated. By showing someone the respect of treating them as they individually expect, you will earn more respect from customers, coworkers, and business partners. By leading your company through mutual respect and understanding, your company will be more likeable, eventually leading to greater success. 

If you want to learn more about what it takes to be a likeable leader and run a likeable business, please join our tribe at the Likeable Business Club on Clubhouse! I look forward to speaking with you there!

And finally, if you are a business leader interested in hosting your own show on the Likeable Business Club, please fill out this form. Let's show the world that kindness IS the ultimate path to success!