The power of being nice

Cost nothing to be a good human ….

I actually agree with Ken on this one. Perhaps there are different levels of niceness we need to define and analyze before we can make adhoc generalizations and jump to conclusions that are questionable at best. Perhaps the person described here is closer to what Adam Grant calls the giver, in his book “give and take: a revolutionary approach to success”. If that's the case, I think Greg makes a very good point indeed!

The original meaning of ‘nice’, Greg, appears to be derived from the Latin ‘nescius’, meaning ‘unaware’ or ‘ignorant’. This rather derogatory meaning was reportedly carried over into English when the word was first borrowed (from French) in the early 1300s. Perhaps the original concept of ‘lack of awareness’ isn't really all that far from the ‘truth’ these days?  All aspects of life require difficult decisions to be made and for us to get out of our comfort zones.  Unfortunately, this often means having differences of opinion with others and, in some instances, offending others who may either not be pulling their weight or who are taking advantage of some of us by their actions (whether knowingly or in blissful ignorance).  You rarely see Mr Nice Guy or Gal seeking out the inevitable clash with such offenders and, indeed, I have found that Mr and Ms Nice will often go out of their way to avoid conflict with others, thus being remiss in their role as managers or leaders (although I suggest that nice people may become managers but rarely become leaders). By avoiding the elephant in the room, they fail to look after the greater good of the whole team and/or organisation. It may be nice to be nice and to have others think of us as nice, and it's certainly good to do nice things and feel nice about it. After all, we all need to stop and smell the roses from time to time, but every rose garden has weeds that need to be pulled out and parasite insects that need to be controlled, or else our rose bushes are soon overrun and become a wilderness.  You can't be a good gardener merely by fertilising the plants you want to keep and sowing new seed to achieve diversity.  You also need to occasionally do some pruning (to encourage growth) and weeding (to maintain structure and beauty).

🤔