Do Acts of Kindness Pay Off?
“Be kind.”
The small yard sign stood as a beacon near our MEK office. For some reason, it seemed like a very important call to action. In a short-tempered, polarized world bending under a mental health crisis, it offered actionable – and reasonable – advice. 
Civility today appears in some quarters to have reached the status of a theoretical concept. Kindness requires a deliberate act. Some people do it naturally. They pay attention to little things, even when they don’t have to and nobody’s looking.
Recently I’ve seen both ends of that spectrum. Like many of you reading this, I’ve personally experienced and felt the humbling power when someone unexpectedly takes a moment to gently, but firmly, put in an encouraging word of recognition. Current management and corporate organization books attribute that humbling power to the release of various enzymes in our bloodstreams.
It goes beyond that for me.
The unexpected power of kindness
A simple act of kindness often alters my perception. It makes me self-check my own behavior. I actively think about paying it forward, believing the best in a time when vindictive can be the rule.
On the other side, when someone drives over me, that also changes my perspective. I recently asked a consultant for clarification and validity of a report that had been produced. It seemed like a fair request, at least one for discussion. The email response included this phrase: “we cannot invest time for free” and went on to request a new engagement for a new fee.
That didn’t upset me, but it did give me pause.
“Be kind,” the sign read.
We at MEK often are engaged in reputation management. Reputation grows over time, based on multiple experiences, good or bad. Real trust emerges when positive reputation grows strong. Good reputations are hard to build, and for good reason. Trust in today’s world is not easily won. It is not a commodity. It is essential on every level.
Acts of kindness – selfless acts of simply paying attention and listening, really listening, build positive reputation.
As a 20-year business owner who has been asked to perform free work on a regular basis, I get how it needs to be said on occasion that a laborer is worthy of one’s hire. But how one says it is important.
“Be kind.”
Among its marketing and other services, MEK is reasonably well known for providing professional public relations, whether conducting media relations, producing content, addressing issues related to organizational change, or more. The irony of professional public relations is that it is the most effective when its invisible, which means stepping aside when credit for success is handed out. It is related to acts of kindness, creating mutually beneficial situations – and in many situations, embracing applications of humility.
We deal with real human dynamics. After working in this industry for a number of decades, beginning in Los Angeles, it’s still amazing to see how some executives, managers and people create painful toxic situations and label it “innovation.” In a time when civility is needed more than ever, creating toxic environments is counterproductive, especially when talent starts heading for the door. In 1986, I was professionally certified in crisis communications. It’s amazing how useful that has been.
“Kindness is more than behavior”
What is kindness? Here’s what the Mayo Clinic says: “Kindness is more than behavior. The art of kindness means harboring a spirit of helpfulness, as well as being generous and considerate, and doing so without expecting anything in return. Kindness is a quality of being. The act of giving kindness often is simple, free, positive and healthy.”
“Strength impresses us,” goes the saying, “but what we remember is kindness.”
While this content might seem a bit on the side of philosophy, there is a definite cost benefit to acts of kindness. There’s an altruistic payoff, but more often than not, real acts of kindness can produce unexpected monetary and career payoffs.
Here’s an interesting example.
Every weekend the Wall Street Journal prints unusual obituaries of people who have made a difference. The weekend of June 18-19 2022 was no different.
A WSJ headline caught my eye: “Lawyer’s Small Favor Impressed Big Client.” Fair or not, the words “lawyer” and “favor” don’t seem to appear in the same sentence on a frequent basis.
Here’s the lead: “As a Harvard-trained lawyer…in Chicago in the late 1950s, Donald G. Lubin did some low level legal chores.” The highly trained attorney rendered service for an obscure Chicago-area hamburger chain.
As the story continued, as a few years later in 1964, we learn that a bookkeeper and secretary at the small company asked Lubin for some personal legal advice about weddings in Las Vegas. A friend was planning to get married. The attorney “promptly called a county clerk in Nevada, got the answers and relayed them.”
The attorney again delivered a thoughtful act of kindness: “He refused to accept any payment for what he saw as a simple favor.”
The bookkeeper was “so impressed that she gave Mr. Lubin some billable work: making her will.”
That effort went well. As it turns out, the Chicago bookkeeper, now a corporate secretary, knew that her boss also needed a will. So, she arranged for Mr. Lupin to meet her boss and begin a professional relationship.
Her boss was Ray Kroc, who then had recently bought the hamburger chain from the McDonald brothers and ultimately created “fast food” transformation. When Kroc died in 1984, the “small chain” had grown to more than 7,500 McDonalds restaurants. Once a milkshake mixer salesman, Kroc’s net worth at death was in excess of $600 million.
As the Journal notes, “Mr. Lubin bonded with Mr. Kroc, joined the board of McDonalds in 1967 and remained a director for 37 years.” As his law firm (now part of the global Dentons law firm) conducted legal work globally for McDonalds, Lubin went on to personally negotiate Kroc’s purchase of the San Diego Padres baseball team in 1974 and serve as the team’s general counsel.
“Be kind,” the sign read.
By Michael Snyder, managing principal, MEK.