At our Vision & Values CiB workshop yesterday (held at Peugeot) I realised just how important it is for leaders to remind teams of a company's 'Values' and how behaviours really can impact on the performance of a business.  In these uncertain economic times a key aspect of anyone's performance should be to remain focussed and positive.  This is easier said than done when you consider many jobs will be under threat from redundancy and austerity measures gain prominence over bonus payments.  So how can we motivate and encourage employees to live the 'Values' during a downturn?  Answer: By being kind to others.

Why? Well according to behaviour experts, when you do something for someone else, stress related health problems improve.  Helping others reverses feelings of depression, supplies social contact, and decreases feelings of hostility and isolation.  This sounds to me like great team work mentality - a core 'Value' behaviour identified across many companies.  Great team work and helping others doesn't cost a penny but can make a real difference to the bottom line as everyone pulls together in the same direction.  Some examples of simple acts of kindness include things such as saying “Hello”, opening a door, remembering a birthday, giving flowers, offering to help carry a heavy bag or just smiling at someone else. A story has been told of a time when Mahatma Gandhi was boarding a moving train and one of his shoes slipped off and fell upon the track. As he was unable to retrieve it, Gandhi - to the astonishment of his fellow travellers - calmly removed his other shoe and threw it down the track to where the first had landed. "The poor man who finds the shoe lying on the track," Gandhi explained, "will now have a pair he can use."

Albert Einstein said "The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth.”  Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."  

I challenge all those who read this to find one way to be kind - and follow through with it today and every day.