Kindness and commerce

Business and kindness, can they ever be friends? Can they ever collaborate? Commercial objectives, can these be ever achieved through the medium of Kindness? Why would a CEO or a business manager, who is tasked to achieve business budgets, ever want to be Kind, to those who have to help in the realisation of the business targets? Even the non-profit organisations that are set up to serve social and economic needs of the society, aren't charitable, with Kindness on offer! Essentially what commerce, trade, business, industry and economics got to do with Kindness?

Neither the concept is utopian nor is kindness irrelevant to business and economics. All business activities are based on human interaction. Those who recognise the importance of the human factor in production of economic assets do better than those who treat humans as machines. Kindness is a trait that all living relationships desire; since a relationship constitutes at least two parties, kindness is a two way street. Kindness begets kindness.

Kindness must be understood in its right perspective. A manager who pities upon colleagues is not a kind person ... showing pity tantamount to looking down in acknowledgment and obligation; while kindness looks down to pull up. The entire edifice of "intent", between the two is different. The dictionary describes the word, 'kind', as having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others; wanting and likely to do things to bring happiness to others.

Kindness as a human emotion resides within, both inside the physical self and the unseen spirit. To unravel the mysterious power it has over actions is to traverse through a maze, where the attempt to find exit is the toughest task. The pleasure in being kind is a human mystery, it can trace only to the vicegerency from the divinity.

Kindness must not be perceived as 'acts of charity'; kindness must reflect an attitude. The corporate culture must reflect and exhibit this feature. An attitude of empathy (a form of kindness) can most likely be the catalyst to provoke, the sentiments of letting personal interests become subservient to institutional interest. While empathy is necessary in any outfit, because it enables the ability to understand and share the feelings of others; kindness on the other hand is an overarching quality of being friendly, generous and significantly considerate.

Strategy in my personal view and experience plays a subordinate role in developing the sense and consciousness of the workforce, for achieving business targets; it is predominantly qualities of self sacrifice, loyalty and kindness that triggers action for attainment of corporate goals. Rutger Bregman, in his international best seller book, "Humankind: A Hopeful History", writes "Tactics, training, ideology -- all are crucial for an army ... But ultimately, an army is only as strong as the ties of fellowship among its soldiers. Camaraderie is the weapon that wins wars". Threats do not produce quality results, but a command dipped in honey has more lethal, almost nuclear force of acceptance by the workers.

Consideration, lenience, generosity and magnanimity are an outcome of amiability and care. Kindness ushers these qualities, and no manager can afford an inability to understand the power of the resultant positive thinking that drives towards achieving targets. An attitude of Kindness empowers to overcome all those negative aspects and situations that limit and restrain. The most significant thing about kindness at the workplace is its characteristic to spread like a pandemic. Its good effects reach the farthest corner of the organisation at the speed of light.

In human kind it is cited that researchers attempted to find what is the core human nature? A Baby Lab researcher believed that even a six month old infant can distinguish between good and evil. She put on a "puppet show" for her pint sized subjects (six and ten months old), featuring one puppet that acted helpful and another that behaved like a jerk. Which puppet would the infants then reach for? No surprise. They favoured the helpful puppet --- a natural response to prefer the good guy. It concludes that mother nature has blessed us all equally with an innate moral compass. Man is born pure, the impurities are acquired; we despoil the innate blessing by negative indoctrination. It is by virtue of this that man transforms from being an angelic human into despicable and devilish, psychopaths, narcissists, self centred, selfish, etc. being.

Kindness can be a formidable management tool in building teams within the organisation. Once adopted as a managerial way of handling issues, it takes the form of 'conviction'. And a team that has conviction renders itself to the realm of the " possessed"; the bind of kindness as the common denominator, gives the team a sound sense and feeling of legitimacy, to put up against the tyranny of market competition.

Organisations that are capable of surviving turmoils of the market place are essentially those who provide to their work force a sense of friendship between all of its constituents --- what holds them together is not merely the corporate goals of business growth and profitability, it is much beyond these material trivialities; it is togetherness, that drives within their ranks, a unity, that we shall not fail each other. Against such a deep seated ideology of holding hands , the perils arising out of the competition are done away for good. The element of kindness glues them, and it is the noblest of weapons to conquer minds. No cost is payable in saying, "God bless you" or words of similar import and meaning. Good words grown out of a fertile soil of goodwill, that are the lingua franca of any institution, go to create a healthy working environment . The attitude of kindness in interpersonal dealings is the substance that binds colleagues, which then converts into a powerful sense of camaraderie.

Bonuses and increments are a 'one time delight', while enquiring welfare from a staff that returns from a sick leave is a lifelong motivation --- acts of kindness are interminable. A colleague would often lament without relent, despite the many years that had rolled on, about the insensitivity of his supervisor, who offered no condolences or said any words of comfort, on the passing away of his beloved mother. The pain is permanently parked in the deepest cavity of his heart. Staff can pound for debt, but not for kindness; it must come of will.

How is kindness, hence, exhibited or seen? The manifestation can be in several forms and formats. An act of clemency where the error is not intentional and is not of a fatalistic nature nor is of permanent damage to the economic assets, is kindness. Clemency, it must be remembered, is a two edged sword, it can be positive and helpful, while in some cases, it actually could be a trigger for more errors to follow. The allowance given to the corrupt is not clemency; it is cruelty towards society.

Kindness is virtuous and all leaders/managers must adopt it as a way of governance. However kindness must not overtake with precedence the standards of governance, and in its application.

The writer is a senior banker and a freelance columnist.