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terminal niceness

Is your company suffering from "terminal niceness"?

Ursula Burns, the outspoken new chief executive of Xerox, says it's an affliction within her company culture that she intends to cure.

According to a profile in The New York Times last week, Ms. Burns wants to improve her employees' performance by encouraging them to be bolder, more frank and impatient with each other.

"We are really, really, really nice," the article quoted Ms. Burns as saying, explaining that employees sometimes just quietly listen at company meetings. "And then the meeting ends, and we leave and go, 'Man, that wasn't true.' I'm like, 'Why didn't you say that in the meeting?' "

Niceness, it seems, will only get you so far at the office.

While no one likes to work with a tyrant, management experts agree that being too nice can cripple a company.

Fiorella Callocchia, president of Mississauga management consulting firm HR Impact, says that terminal niceness is a common workplace problem, and one to which Canadians seem particularly susceptible because of our conservative, risk-adverse culture.

"I see it all the time: I see managers who can't tell someone who reports to them the truth about how they feel; I see it between co-workers who have annoying habits," Ms. Callocchia says.

In an example of the latter, she tells of a situation where a group anonymously left soap and deodorants on a co-worker's desk instead of privately confronting him about his unpleasant body odour. The group's tactic was, paradoxically, the crueler option.

"[People]really don't know how to approach something without it leading into a conflict, and so they just smile and take it, but they complain to everybody else."

Ms. Callocchia says the reluctance to nix niceties usually translates to a fear of stepping on other people's toes,hurting their feelings, orbeing perceived as a whiner or poor team player.

That fear may be even greater now, she says. At a time when resources are tight and many companies have been laying people off or instating hiring freezes, teamwork and co-operation are more valued than ever.

Yet, Ms. Callocchia notes, nobody wins by being too nice. Managers who are careful to avoid focusing on the negatives also tend to avoid giving the critical feedback necessary to whip underperforming employees into shape. Meanwhile, employees who don't point out the inadequacies of their employers may fail to help fix their company's shortcomings.

"What companies need now are people who are willing to speak up about things that aren't working well, haven't worked well, and processes that are crazy, that don't serve the customer in the end."

Professor Karl Aquino of the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, who researches workplace victimization, says that being too nice can open people up to possible exploitation by co-workers. Moreover, it may make them more vulnerable to what he calls "the lower-level indignities people experience from day to day," such as being spoken to rudely.

"If you start to recognize that people are not reciprocating or taking advantage of your niceness, then you need to either withhold whatever positive things you're giving or be prepared to defend yourself against people who might exploit you," he says.

While Prof. Aquino notes that people should speak their minds in a professional manner, he suggests that a certain degree of impatience can also be a virtue in the workplace.

"Impatience can lead you to make very rash and poor decisions. On the other hand, impatient people can often get those people who are very slow or feel less urgency to move a little faster," he said. "If it comes down to doing nothing - many people are comfortable with the status quo - versus trying to make some changes and taking some risks, I can see impatience having some positive benefit."

During her climb up the corporate ladder at Xerox, Ms. Burns found out first hand how being blunt can benefit both one's career and the company.

According to The New York Times, she once pointed out inconsistencies between company president Paul Allaire's order to stop hiring new staff with Xerox's continuously expanding work force.

"I'm a little confused, Mr. Allaire," Ms. Burns reportedly said during a meeting. "If you keep saying 'No hiring,' and we hire 1,000 people every month, who can say 'No hiring' and make it actually happen?"

Shortly after the meeting, Ms. Burns received a phone call from Mr. Allaire's office. Instead of landing her in hot water, her candour helped get her promoted to Mr. Allaire's executive assistant, The New York Times said.

Don Sherritt of Western Management Consultants in Vancouver says his firm refers to the problem of excessive niceness as "too polite to perform."

Despite people's reluctance to criticize, many express that they actually appreciate co-workers who are straightforward with them, he says.

"Telling a person that what they're doing is affecting their performance or others' perception of them is an act of friendship," he says.

"Do the act of friendship. Let them know."

Go ahead, be a jerk

Don Sherritt of Western Management Consultants in Vancouver offered some tips on how to nix niceties and confront a boss or colleague without being discourteous:

Be up front: "We usually spend more time worrying about a person's behaviour and talking to other people about it instead of just talking to them. So just talk to the person about the issue."

Don't involve the whole office: "Do it in a manner that's confidential, in privacy. But do it."

Make sure your criticism is constructive: "Offer different behaviours that might work more effectively."

Keep an open mind: "Be prepared for the person to give you more information and [provide]context [that could]cause you to say, 'Oh, well in that context, I understand better.'"

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