Sat, July 17, 2010 - 11:27:51

Can a Big Raise Make You Mean?

As the CEO and President of the Kaplan Thaler Group, we’ve learned first-hand that NICE is the most effective business philosophy. In the so-called “dog-eat-dog” corporate world, we’ve made it to the top not by stepping on the backs of others, but by smiling and shaking hands. 

In our book, we discuss how NICE people are happier, healthier, and luckier in love, and—contrary to what you might think—higher paid than their mean counterparts. But this week, one of our Twitter followers asked for our thoughts on a Wall Street Journal article entitled, “Does More Money Make CEO’s Mean?” and it begged the question: “Can a big raise turn a NICE guy mean?”

The article reports on a new paper published by researchers at Harvard, Rice, and the University of Utah, which concludes that “higher income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in executives perceiving themselves as being all-powerful and this perception of power leads them to maltreat rank-and-file workers.”

But, the Wall Street Journal’s Robert Frank brings up a thought provoking-point that hits the nail on the head: “Perhaps the type of CEO that wants to be paid far more than his business’s rank-and-file workers also is the type of CEO that may not respect his business’s workers as much. In other words, that character, not money, may be the source of nastiness.” Like Frank, we wish the study would look at the underlying issues—the driving factors behind why these so-called mean CEO’s choose a specific course and what drives their actions.

In business, as in life, you will come across those who want to bake a bigger pie to share with others and you will come across the people who want to eat the entire pie themselves. In the end, only one comes out feeling satisfied—and we bet you can guess which one. Although, the “bigger pie” business person is driven and desires success, he or she also values the feelings and needs of others as much as his or her own. And that—in addition to being a hallmark of the power of nice—is the unmistakable trait of a good leader, no matter how much they earn.

Posted by Linda and Robin