We are on vacation in Nantucket and we’ve been here for a little over a week now. One thing that we noticed this year was that not everyone has been nice—and some have been borderline rude. As my daughter jokingly, yet truthfully, stated, “‘Excuse me’ isn’t that hard to say.” True, right?

I don’t live here full time, and if I did I am SURE that all the weekend and summer people descending on my beautiful and remote island would not make me so happy either. Or maybe, we just happen to run into a few people who were having bad days. Either way it was a great lesson in how WE reacted to some unpleasant behavior—and it didn’t really make us more pleasant. Not being nice triggers an unhealthy and unhappy chain reaction in everyone that is effected by it AND in anyone that shares it—if you’re a leader, please highlight this!

We learned this in kindergarten, for goodness sake. “Be nice to others and they’ll be nice to you.” We both remember, right? It was right after we learned the alphabet! This matters in corporations as much as it does in the super market. Maybe “easier said than done” sometimes, but if you’re a leader, the chain reaction from your behavior has a really unfortunate ripple effect that isn’t easily undone. We will always get more flies with honey than we do vinegar, regardless of how important or powerful we want to appear. Perhaps we should think it through before opening our mouth, and ask ourselves, “Is there a better way?”

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!
Beth Fitzgerald