Nice Guys
The Harvard Business School class is doing the Moz case study again.
— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) February 22, 2022
Like last time, my fav part is the analyses of my weaknesses:
Too soft to manage my capital
"Nice guy," maybe too nice
Intertwines emotions/ego too much with work
Ambition w/o experimentation
Inexperienced pic.twitter.com/KWSEAIGltO
Go ahead and do a Google search of being a “nice manager”. There are more articles than I can count. All of them list the negative aspects of being kind. I couldn’t find one that takes a positive viewpoint. Let me share some of the common problems listed when it comes to being a nice leader.
- You make excuses for underperformers
- You find yourself playing counsellor.
- You’re sharing too much information.
- You’re always sharing credit
Yes, these are all things you shouldn’t be doing as a leader. However, I would argue that they have nothing to do with being empathetic or understanding and everything to do with being inexperienced.
Maybe I’m projecting a little because I’ve been given negative feedback for being too nice as a Manager. There are times when you need to utilize performance management and times when you have to let people go. I believe you should exhaust every possible method of developing and supporting those on your team first. People will surprise you when they’re given the support they need to grow. There’s often potential there. You need to build solid relationships first to see it.