“Nice guys finish last,” or so we’ve always been told. In the rough-and-tumble of business competition, there seems to be no pay-off for altruistic behavior. Yet we see it over and over again: Businesses large and small sharing resources of expertise, products, and money. What gives?
In the bean-counting business world, kindness counts for little. Nevertheless, business-related giving has a quantifiable return on investment, as reported in a study by the University of California San Diego. Researcher James Fowler found that gift-giving created a ripple effect within a community. Gift recipients were more inclined to be generous themselves, and the effect of the initial gift was amplified to three times its original value.
More important, those gifts came back to the giver in the form of relationships, something no business can afford to be without. Even small gifts of advice will establish and solidify relationships, says Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, in an interview for “The Creator’s Code” by Amy Wilkinson. Someone who is willing to give a hand is the sort of person that others would want to do business with.
Conversely, people who behave selfishly become isolated from the larger community, as a study from Harvard’s Department of Psychology discovered. Sharers acquired allies; non-sharers were quickly cut off from resources and community support.
Writing in Fortune Magazine, Amy Wilkinson relates the frequency with which successful business leaders “gift small goods,” as she terms the practice of being generous in a small but meaningful way. Feedback, introductions, and counsel are ways these people lend a hand to other business colleagues. Wilkinson cites these kindnesses as one of the six skills common to successful entrepreneurs.
Wilkinson also points to the power of social media in amplifying the effects of kindness. When recipients of your gifts mention your generosity on social media, it has an immediate positive effect on image, and on revenues.
No doubt you’ve experienced that pleasant vicarious enjoyment that comes from someone else’s happy response to a gift you’ve given them. Now there’s proof that you’re doing your business good at the same time you’re doing good for others.
And of course, we at NOS would like to feel that same vicarious enjoyment too. May we “gift small goods” to you?
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