Why Likeability Can Smile on Your Bottom Line

Who gets ahead in corporate America today? Is it the guy who's a pro at dirty politics, who excels at back-stabbing, and who, given some power, rules by fear and intimidation?

Or is it the nice guy, the straight arrow? The one who always asks about your family, cracks a joke, and even expresses sympathy when you're frustrated with a task?

You might be surprised to learn that it's the likeable guy who not only gets ahead, but typically stays ahead, at least according to best-selling author Tim Sanders, a Yahoo! executive and author of The Likeability Factor, a new self-help manual. Sanders' new book is launching a debate among business pundits and challenging assumptions about the paths to success in our dog-eat-dog business world. It's even prompting some companies to try to change their business cultures.

Likeable people, Sanders claims, are more apt to get better jobs and raises, be hired, promoted and retained, and enjoy better customer service from their local coffee vendor and everyone else. Likeable bosses, rather than obnoxious ones, also inspire the best work from their people and are better able to retain them. Nastiness, which Sanders says is pervasive in American business life, spells lower productivity, higher turnover, and a culture of misery.

"Treating people respectfully, with encouragement and compliments always wins out over a heavy-handed, punitive boss," says Gail Jern, Westaff's Human Resources Manager. "Kindness and empathy motivate people, whereas raised voices, constant criticism and demeaning behavior — I've never seen it work."

"Unfortunately, there are people who never learned how to treat others well while they were growing up, and they don't magically change just because they step into a business environment," Jern adds. "Those people need good, strong management training."

Many company execs agree with Jern. In fact, some have hired Sanders to help them create a more friendly work environment, not only to encourage a higher happiness quotient, but greater productivity. Some have even taken the step of abolishing unfriendliness, says Sanders in a recent Time article, calling it the IONU system — I observe no unfriendliness.

Upping your L-Factor, or likeability factor, as Sanders spells out in Executive Update Online, means increasing four components of likeability: friendliness, or the ability to express a liking for another person and communicate welcome; relevance, which is the importance you hold for other people and the ability to connect to others' needs; empathy, defined as the capacity to walk a mile in your colleague's shoes; and realness, or being true to yourself and others, factual and actual. (See Side Story.)

This isn't just a touchy-feely strategy to doing better business. Recent studies bear out the links between likeability, productivity and turnover. A quality relationship between the employee and his or her boss — not money or benefits — most affects employee loyalty and productivity, according to Gallup researchers Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, who've coauthored First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Much like Sanders, a good manager, the two argue in SHRM Forum, is someone who sets clear and consistent expectations, cares for them, values their unique qualities, and encourages and supports their growth and development. An employee with a good manager is likely to stay longer, produce more and inspire greater customer loyalty as well.

"Most people leave their jobs because of management rather than because of money," Jern concurs. "Even if the money is not as much as an employee would like, getting a good manager can make all the difference in the world. "

"Being treated well often inspires productivity," Jern adds. "If someone is good to you and asks for a special favor, you're more likely to stay that extra 30 minutes to help them out. It comes down to treating others the way you'd like to be treated."

Conversely, bad turnover can have a powerful negative effect on a company's bottom line. The cost of replacing a valued employee is two-and-a-half times his or her annual salary if you factor in all the hiring costs as well as the potential for lost productivity, customers and contacts, experts say.

So, it pays to increase your likeability factor and to encourage a friendlier work environment. If, however, you find likeability too tough to try on, Sanders suggests in a recent Time article that you at least be polite. No yelling, banging your fist on the desk, hanging up on people or using biting sarcasm. If that's too much of a stretch, then just keep quiet, Sanders advises, and try not to be so unfriendly.