It’s a tough world, and it’s getting tougher. So should HR respond by looking for people who don’t mind playing dirty once in a while?
Which came first, civility or success? That’s one question Rosabeth Kanter sought to answer in her business book “Confidence.”
Kanter is a Harvard professor and business consultant who noticed in her studies of successful companies that people who worked with or for those companies always seemed to talk about how “nice” the managers and employees were.
So, she wondered: (a) Are the people nice because the companies
are making lots of money? Or (b) are the companies making a lot of
money because the people are nice?
Kanter’s conclusion: It’s (b). Or, if you prefer, nice guys (and gals) finish first.
Going up?
And her advice to HR managers: Yes, of course you want to hire
skilled, talented, knowledgeable people. But all those things being
equal, you want to hire the person who knows how to treat others.
The organization that does so will have a better chance of achieving long-term success, in any economy.
That doesn’t mean you have to be on the lookout for bubbly back-slappers to fill your openings. You know that a lot of fine people you come across are quiet, unassuming types. So it isn’t a strict question of
personality or putting on a good face.
Instead, Kanter insists, the decency factor is one of those things that’s hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.
Kanter’s research comes close to confirming the old saw about asking yourself, “Would I want to spend three hours in a stuck elevator with this person?” when appraising a candidate.
More than that, though, it suggests you ask yourself: “Would this person hold the elevator for me if he or she was in a hurry?”
