Be kind, be businesslike.
Be both.
A new focus this week: the differences between teams that promote serenity and success at work and those that never get there because they’re forever waiting for ‘this difficult period’ to be over.
Be kind, be businesslike. Be both.
Being kind doesn’t mean being unbusinesslike, and being businesslike doesn’t mean being unkind. If ‘kind’ and ‘businesslike’ were axes on a graph, they’d be at right angles to each other—and organizations and teams can sit anywhere on that graph.
Teams that are businesslike are good at making and implementing savvy decisions, communicate well, are on top of things, look ahead, respond to challenges, and enthusiastically learn from the things that go wrong. I’m not using the word businesslike to mean profit-driven. Its sense here is positive (and politically neutral). By kind I mean that concern for everyone—employees, customers, clients, trainees, the community—is a norm manifested not just in what the organization says about itself but in what everyone does, day in, day out.
Teams with a culture of kindness—the sort in which many who choose work that matters find themselves working—sometimes struggle with being businesslike (‘A’ on the map above). And those at ‘B’ can be so focused on being businesslike that they lose track of the organizational importance of genuine kindness. But this is no more than how things sometimes end up. You can be both, or neither.
You need to be both. Both qualities are prerequisites not just for teams’ serenity and success, but for your own serenity and success. It’s hard to do what you want to do, in the way you do it best, in a setting that’s unkind, unbusinesslike, or both.
Teams that are neither kind nor businesslike fail. Those that are businesslike but lack kindness (‘B’) can do well, on some measures, for a time, but then they start coming off the rails. They become unfulfilling places to work. Cohesion deteriorates. People leave. Recruitment’s a challenge. Teams that are kind but unbusinesslike (‘A’)—and there are a lot of these—can also do well for a time, especially in unchallenging circumstances. But when even small stressors come along, they struggle. And, when the going’s tough, they’re the places where everyone becomes wrung out, hoping better times are just around the corner.
Teams that are kind and businesslike? They take challenges in their stride and thrive.
You need to know where your team is on that map, to think about it from time to time. We often have a hunch already, though businesslike but less-than-kind teams do sometimes genuinely but mistakenly believe they’re where they have to be. And we—or, at least, some team members, especially those with less sway—often have a pretty shrewd idea of what needs to change. (And there’s more to come in future emails about how teams can become kinder and more businesslike.)
We vary in the influence we have over our teams. But these are principles for which we can all advocate—and they’re an important indicator of whether a job’s one to consider or, if you’re fortunate enough to have a choice, one to steer a country mile around.
Consider honestly, with colleagues, whether your team’s balance is right. If it isn’t, you need to be talking about how to change it. You can’t afford not to.
Barely relevant fiction recommendation: Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake (2023). A beautiful novel, set in Northern Michigan, about family and love.
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If you’ve found these weekly emails useful, would you consider encouraging others to subscribe (www.adamsandell.com)? Sadly, getting this genre of non-fiction published now depends more on showing you have a platform than on the quality of your writing. And self-promotion isn’t my forte. All help—and advice—gratefully received!
This subject is a good example of why my last workplace didn't work out - it was way too business-like, and not very kind. A lot the staff were kind, but the culture of the workplace didn't support it. The priorities were wrong, and considering the majority of the target "customers / clients" led very psychosocially complex lives, they could not be served well by a service that worked based on a maximum efficiency and profit-based framework. Demoralised, many staff left, including myself. My new workplace has a great balance of attention to staff well-being and morale, and quality improvement of service and processes. It is able to rethink and adjust as needed, without major unsettling of staff. It's cool to see these qualities demonstrated on your diagram showing the intersecting spectrums of kindness and businesslike. Thanks :)