“Hey, I’ve been turned into a cow… can I go home?” “You’re excused.”

“Hey, I’ve been turned into a cow… can I go home?”, “You’re excused.”

It’s a pretty simple rule, one that our parents told us about, our teachers said many times, but then as we get older people seem to stop talking about this simple rule.

Be nice.

Yup that simple. However, it seems to get regularly lost in the corporate world. How come? Well, let’s go to the movies for this answer, shall we? The Emperors New Groove is the movie that we will use for reference here. Kuzko was, let’s face it, a bit of an ass. He treated everyone as though they were beneath him. He wanted a pool so a whole village of people had to lose their homes so he could get it. But when push came to shove, he would have to depend on those same people to save his little llama life.

His inability to stick to the cardinal rule of “do unto others as you would like done onto you” even turned his faithful advisor against him to the point where she wanted to kill him, but alas, only managed to turn him into a llama.

But as he learned kindness throughout the movie, he managed to inspire the faith and trust of others. This is where we apply the leadership piece.

A true leader knows how to be kind. You can have expectations, you can still be the lead, but you can do all of this while still being compassionate. This will cause your employees to WANT to help to move you and your company forward. This will inspire loyalty from your people, and in turn, they will give it their all for you.

Being nice doesn’t mean being a pushover, it doesn’t mean that you can’t stick to your guns, it just means that you will gain the trust and loyalty of your people by treating them like actual people.  

So be kind. Be nice. Don’t get turned into a llama.