Spreading kindness, making people smile or doing random acts of service can have a huge impact on someone’s day. You know that feel good feeling after changing someone’s mood? Well, it’s a two-way happiness street! More and more people are finding the uniqueness of spreading kindness all around to people they may not even know.
Pay It Forward
You may have seen or experienced that one person paid for the groceries for the person behind them. Maybe you were sitting at the Starbucks Drive-thru when the car in front of you paid for your drink. Their random act may have caught you off guard, but you felt so happy, you paid it forward to the car behind you.
Integrating Kindness Into Work Culture
What would happen if we brought that same spirit to business? What if we encouraged our staff to pay forward a noble act to another co-worker? What would happen if we took it even a step further and had our team do a random act of kindness towards some of our clients?
This is actually a concept that we have implemented for almost a year now, and the change in our company culture has shifted in an enormous way. Our team has been happier and in better spirits which transmits to higher productivity and a more welcoming work environment. They are more willing to put more effort into their work after having experienced an act of kindness. For example, recognition and appreciation is a fundamental key to happiness in the workplace, so if one coworker sends an email out to everyone recognizing the hard work of another co-worker, it will have a happiness effect on both workers. (One for making someone else’s day, and the other for being recognized for their work.) This simple act has been eye-opening for us.
Recently, one of our managers was out of the office for a couple of days, so one of our team members thought it would be a neat idea to buy her flowers and a huge card for when she came back, just thanking her for everything she does on a daily basis for us. It was a small token of appreciation for the huge impact she has on everyone.
Customer Delight
Another concept that had a major effect in making a shift in our company’s environment, is spreading acts of kindness to our clients. Appreciation cards every Thanksgiving are nice, but what are you doing all other 364 days of the year to appreciate their loyalty? We have found that sending appreciation gifts to our clients makes a huge difference and creates a more personal relationship with them. For example, when one of our receptionists found out that a client was having a baby, we made it a point to send out a gift for their bundle of joy. The gratefulness and appreciation that we received back was priceless.
The same thing applies when we find out a client of ours or someone in their family is sick. We send them a small gesture to let them know that we sincerely care and wish for the best. If they are located in the same city as us, we also have the receptionists sign a card with a thoughtful message. We do these random acts of kindness primarily through Amazon Prime. We put a certain amount of money in our company account for the month, and when a receptionist feels like performing a random act of kindness, they can just hop online and buy whatever it is that they choose.
Being kind to others is powerful. Offering a helping hand, support or positivity to a stranger is something that is not as common in today’s society, but it all starts with you and your ability to completely change someone’s day.
