The Trouble With Being Nice

A few years back I was advised by a mentor to toughen up, to challenge people more.

It was hard news to take, being a life-long consensus builder and a recovering people-pleaser. I liked being nice.

I like to be liked. 

But in business, or in any leadership capacity, we are not called so much to be nice, but to move a team forward to some greater end. Which innevitably means that you will find yourself dealing with some not-so-nice situations, like sticking to an opinion in the face of outright criticism and dissent. Or confronting unethical and destructive behavior.  Or firing poor performers.

In a word, leadership requires conviction – a sense of doing the right thing, which trumps niceness.

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