I sat down with Louisa Garret of Make Kind Loud to talk about how Kindness can drastically improve your workplace and customer interaction. If you would like to learn more about Louisa Garrett and her program, you can click here.
Daniel Glickman
Welcome to our quick live show. This is Daniel Glickman together with…
Louisa Garrett
Louisa Garrett!
Daniel Glickman
Louisa is a specialist in corporate kindness or kindness in general.
Louisa Garrett
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. My mission in life is to make kind loud; to spread as much joy and kindness as possible. And that includes businesses, corporations, organizations, nonprofits, and to embed kindness into those cultures. If you embed kindness, that is a game changer for your business.
Daniel Glickman
So let’s attack this from the business perspective. What does kindness for business mean? How can a business be more kind? And why should a business be kinder?
Louisa Garrett
A business should be kinder because that directly impacts your bottom line. Your business is your people. And if your people feel valued, if they feel heard, if they feel seen, then they will do more, they will produce more, they will be more apt to promote the business. So it’s definitely a game changer. And it’s important that CEOs and executives understand that the business is the people. Then the people will go out and help the bottom line. But if you have people who are miserable at work, then that could adversely affect your bottom line. People might consider kindness to be a fluff word, but it really is the core to making your bottom line soar.
Daniel Glickman
Do organizations realize that they are not kind and how can they make that connection between kindness and their bottom line?
Louisa Garrett
I think it’s half and half. There’s one company here in Dallas that has a no jerks policy. So they don’t work with jerks. They don’t go out and hire jerks. If there is something off with the people they are working with, they completely cut that off. So that’s the culture that they have established. So some people, some companies innately strive for that. And then you have other companies who don’t realize the importance of infusing kindness into their business. But once they start doing that, they see the difference. And so it really is about what kind of culture you want to create, and what kind of legacy you want to leave with your employees and with your customers.
Daniel Glickman
So exactly the way we are at video. We’re just nice people, I think. And we always want to make sure that our customers are happy and satisfied, whatever that means in the moment within reason. And there are companies out there, like Uber, that had a notoriously bad reputation of being filled with a-holes. Is that simply because of the founders? How does that kind of toxic company culture evolve? Where does that come from?
Louisa Garrett
I think it comes from not listening to employees, and only caring about the money and not caring about the culture. When I go into corporations, and when I meet with CEOs, I explain to them that the money will come and the money will exponentially get better if you treat your people better. You have companies like Uber, that was notoriously famous for being a-holes, who were only concerned about the money. Now it’s a business. Of course, you want to make money. Of course you want to sell whatever you’re selling or whatever service that you’re offering. However, in order to make sure that you are selling your products, offering your service, leading the nation in whatever that is, then it is important for your employees to feel heard and seen. Because once they bite into that, then there is no greater advocate for you than the people who are on the front lines. So if the people who are on the front lines are feeling abused, then that’s going to come out. But if they are feeling like they’re motivated, and they’re enpowered, and they are inspired, that too will come out. It’s really about changing the mindset of the leaders. I think a lot of the toxic behavior comes from only worrying about the bottom line and the spreadsheets. If we can look beyond the spreadsheet and really look into the people who work for you, because I cannot stress this enough, the business truly is your people. Once they buy into it and they feel motivated, they will go out and they will sing your praises. Adversely, if they’re not feeling that, then they will come across as not supportive of the company and that can come across with customer service.
Daniel Glickman
So when does it signal that it is time for a business to hire a kindness consultant? That there is some problem here.
Louisa Garrett
I believe that you can feel it. When you enter a space, when you enter a company, you can feel the energy in the room. If you’re going on to the floor of your company, or whatever you walk in, and you don’t feel the love, then it might be time to do some team building. It might be time to bring in a kindness coach, and really explore that. Don’t just do it because it sounds good. Do it because you really care about the people who work for you. And when I walk into companies, I tell the leadership that this is what I felt. Some CEOs will say “we’re fine the way we are.” And if that’s the case, then unfortunately, that’s the case. But if you care enough about your business, corporation, nonprofit, whatever the case may be, then you will look to see how you can get better. And you have to look outside of the box. It’s not always about money. It is about human connection, and human interaction, and the ability to understand that we are in this together.
Daniel Glickman
So what kind of steps are typically involved in becoming Kinder?
Louisa Garrett
Recognize people. I firmly believe that if someone has a good idea, recognize that person; give credit where credit is due. Once they feel “Oh, wow, I was mentioned in the staff meeting or the newsletter or whatever,” then that motivates them to get their creative juices flowing to see how they can help the company more. Give credit where credit is due. Listen to what your employees are saying; really hear how they are approaching or feeling about a project. Maybe y’all can work it out together. And that goes to having an open door policy. A lot of people say that they have open door policies, but what it truly means is that you could communicate and not feel like, “Oh, that’s not gonna go anywhere.” It means that I can bring you an idea, I know that you’re going to consider that idea and figure out maybe it’s not right at this time. But at least I know they heard me. So listen to your employees, give credit where credit is due, and allow them to have the creative license to think differently. And there’s no set way to do anything. If someone has a crazy idea, but it’s not really crazy, allow them to explore that. And then come back and say, “Hey, can we figure it out this way?” If you give people ownership on whatever project it might be, then they will go and do more and do better because they feel like they have been heard and understood.
Daniel Glickman
This is some great advice here. Do you have some example of kindness transformation?
Louisa Garrett
I was doing a kindness seminar at one PR company that asked, “What if the client is very demanding and they have ridiculous goals? How can we be kind, but also let them know that these are the parameters in which we can work in?” Just be honest with them. I think a lot of people don’t want to hurt people’s feelings for some reason. And it’s not really hurting their feelings; it’s just setting the boundaries. As I was speaking to this company, I saw light bulbs go off. They were like, “Oh, we can be kind and set boundaries at the same time.” It’s important to do both. If you don’t set boundaries, people will continue to push your limit. Once that clicked in their heads, they’re like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” To this day, they make sure that they’re upfront with the client of what the parameters are while letting them know that we are working together. This is how we operate. And if the client doesn’t want to operate within their parameters, then you have a choice to either accept that business or not.
Daniel Glickman
That was really great advice. I appreciate the topic and the fact that you came in during these times to talk about kindness. I feel that we all could use a bit more of it in our lives, and we can all contribute a bit more kindness.
