Would you rather be a mean or nice business person?

[PerfectNotes-Kathy]

And as stated before, remember that it is never about personalities - it is about issues. If you/the manager starts calling names, the person being addressed is never going to get the point - they will just get upset and reject what you were trying to get changed.

Kathy

[Tedious]

Aahhh one of my favorite subjects ! Social Engineering you have to be able to sense the vibes and adapt to the circumstances total chameleon personality I have a crazy ability to do this hence I've never met a person that hasn't got along with me ! One thing I find that's extremely important is the way you talk to your employees I've had 3 of them and I've had to get rid of one due to the fact he was my first and we became to mateish so he thought it was exceptable if I was sitting in the office talking to a mate he could just hang around and do the same I tryed being firm with him but he took it as a joke cause we crossed the employee boss line almost to mates .... If this makes any sense ?

Cheers, Andrew

[craiglongmuir.com]

I always prefer dealing with nice people and whilst you have to put up with the mean ones in some cases, I'd be taking the first opportunity to swap them out of the equation for someone nice...

[Numberz]

Originally Posted by dialm4accounts

Agreed. As a very wise colleague once said to me, "Don't burn your bridges, you never know when you might need to cross them again".

M

Agree....to use another cliché "what goes around comes around"

But experience has taught me that you can generally achieve a lot more being nice than being mean...even if it takes longer!

[onsiteTECHS]

I think it's important to have the strength of character to stand up for yourself (and your team) at times and use direct forceful language to ensure you're not walked over, but only when all other options have failed. Resorting to anger, raised voices, threats and other bullying tactics as the first option in any communication is an indicator of an extremely unskilled or stressed business person / manager / employer / partner / friend.

Bullying tactics appear to work for a while as many people will give in to you initially, but given half an opportunity they'll do whatever they can to get away from you and badmouth you to whomever will listen. I can't think of any good reason for anyone to consciously decide to behave this way for business reasons.

I also reckon you'll be unlikely to find too many bullies on this forum who will stand up for that sort of behaviour, as that type of person is often not inclined to seek out other people's opinion or advice and so they're unlikely to frequent online communities such as this.

[Sandy Naidu]

Never the mean person - I have come across some mean people too who get results because other people fear them - I have also seen that when these mean people do something wrong, there is no one to help them because no one liked them in the first place anyway...

Be nice - Nice always pays...But ofcourse be nice but don't let other people take you for a ride...

[SteveDavidson]

Where possible, I try to go in with a nice face. If I can get things resolved quickly and simply that way, all the better. The more of a runaround I get, however, the more the niceness wears off, and the more likely it is someone higher up the food chain is going to be dealing with an advancing glacier sporting the kind of cheerful affect normally associated with the phrase "I'm sorry, am I looming over your hometown?"

[TrishF]

I think these 2 people were more similar than we realize - they both got what they wanted - the problem fixed & respect (the first guy was feared, but possibly still respected).

IMO the real message is not how nice or mean you are - it's about having the guts to speak up when you are not happy, i.e. getting what you want. Many people confuse speaking & getting what you want with being pushy or mean, so they don't do it & either admire or dislike people who do.

You can get what you want & be nice as the 2nd man proved.
Cheers & happy new year
Trish Fehon