Are you a good listener? Do you consider yourself a kind person? What’s the connection between these two questions?
Listening and kindness have always been important to building successful relationships, both in and outside the workplace. When you work remotely and connect with your clients and colleagues virtually — which many of us do nowadays — they become even more so. Fortunately, they also happen to be free tools we all have at our disposal. So, what are some ways can we incorporate listening and kindness in our professional lives?
Bringing kindness to the workplace
We teach children to be kind, play fair, and share their toys with others, but we’re adults. We have a job to do. It’s more important that we’re focused, ambitious, driven, and results-oriented, right? As it turns out, kindness isn’t just for kids. In fact, a study found that when simple acts of kindness — such as being courteous, helping others, and offering praise — are the norm within an organization, they correlate with a jump in productivity, increased efficiency, and reduced turnover.
Kindness in the workplace can take many forms, such as treating others with respect, showing genuine interest in your colleagues’ ideas, or complimenting a colleague for their hard work during a group Zoom meeting.
Sometimes sending a simple thank you for a prompt response to an email can go a long way. During a project, for example, you are often dependent on the client team (or your fellow colleagues) for information, scheduling, and project feedback. Acknowledging the importance of a timely response to the success of the project will encourage compliance and repeat behavior — which itself can expedite project completion. Make sure to point out the correlation between the two on your next call. When someone provides you with the information you need to keep the project moving forward, be sure to thank them for the promptness of their reply to reinforce the behavior.
Here are just a few benefits of acting kindly in the workplace:
- It doesn’t take any more time than responding or behaving “neutrally” or “negatively”
- It makes others feel better about themselves and strengthens bonds, allowing for greater creativity and collaboration
- It is contagious, which benefits everyone in the workplace
Think about the last time you received an unexpected act of kindness or compliment. How did it make you feel? Now, think about the last time you gave a compliment to someone. How did that make you feel? My response to both questions is that it made me feel happy and positive, and science backs that up. Kindness — whether given or received — releases feel-good dopamine in the brain. And happiness is associated with a jump in motivation, creativity, and productivity. Not everyone needs thanks or accolades, but I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t appreciate receiving them.
Listening is a gift — and it can spark new ideas and opportunities
Listening is sometimes considered a lost art. People can get so caught up in telling their story or getting their “two cents” in, they forget that conversation is a two-way street. Listening goes beyond simply hearing what someone else has to say before you jump in with your thoughts on the matter. Active listening aims to truly understand what the other person is saying (content), how they’re saying it (tone and cadence), and, sometimes, what they’re not saying (subtext and reading between the lines). Asking follow-up questions and sharing back your understanding of what they’ve said shows you’re genuinely interested in what the other person has to say. The fact you’ve dedicated your valuable time to focus solely on them is a gift in today’s always-on, deadline-driven world. In this regard, listening is also an act of kindness.
And just as kindness fosters positivity, which in turn can boost creativity, so does active listening. When you really focus on listening, as opposed to waiting for your turn to speak, you’ll sometimes uncover new ideas or opportunities for innovation within your area of expertise.
Recently, for example, a client expressed frustration with the manual, laborious process they were using to create reports for each of their business units. It was an offhand remark and not part of our current project. Our team knew how to solve this common challenge, however, and could tell by our client’s tone that this was a major pain point. We shared how an automated solution could make their lives much easier. The client was so delighted, they asked us to implement it for them.
In another instance, one of our newer clients shared that they were down a staff member on the campaign team and could not fill the position due to budget constraints. We recognized an opportunity to lift some of the burden of campaign creation and execution off their shoulders. We introduced the client to our Campaign Services team, which was able to jump in and supplement their marketing operations team with seasoned marketing automation specialists to keep their campaigns flowing.
Listening and understanding a client’s (or colleague’s) needs can uncover opportunities to strengthen relationships. These opportunities may look different in your organization, but the result is the same: working together to come up with creative solutions to business challenges.
Genuine kindness and true listening are the building blocks of long-term partnerships. Don’t just take my word for it. Try adding kindness and listening into your professional and personal lives. It doesn’t cost a thing, and it may help you uncover hidden challenges and come up with creative solutions you may have otherwise overlooked.
Angela Brock Schaffer is a Client Engagement Manager with BDO Digital’s Demand Generation Group. She works directly with clients to help advance their business needs, develop long-range marketing plans, and drive ongoing success with their marketing initiatives. Angela is Marketo-certified and she is an Eloqua Product and RPM Master.
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