Add a Touch of Kindness

What would your customers say about you, as a company and as a person?

Would the words "kind" or "compassionate" be a part of their description?

Think about a person you know who you would describe as kind. Whatever is is that they do for a living, what is it that makes them kind, or compassionate?

Is it the way they show that they care? Is it the way that they listen to you, even when you know you might be babbling just a little or way off base? Or maybe is it the way that they lightly touch you by the hand -- on your shoulder or on your back in a non-threatening willingness to feel and to help?

We can all be more kind. We can all be more compassionate. When I think of those who have been most kind in my life they just happen to be those who are also the most trustworthy. Their agenda has always been open and gentle: simply to help. It's the nurse at the glass factory who dressed my cut and sent me back to work not with judgment but with encouragement. It's the baseball coach who patted me on the back with a word of encouragement when I struck out with the bases loaded. It's my partner sitting by my bedside before some nervous eye surgery.

Kindness is a limitless resource. We can bring it to our lives and the lives of others in millions of meaningful ways.

Whatever your product or service, make kindness the leading ingredient.

I think you'll like the results -- and be making a better world for others in the process.

What moments of kindness in your life do you remember? How could you thank those people today?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

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