Sun, February 14, 2010 - 10:50:53

Clay Shirky and Business Week Ask: “Are Working Women Too Nice to Get to the Top?”

A few days ago, we came across a recent blog post entitled “A Rant About Women” by New York University professor Clay Shirky in which he wonders if women “just don’t have what it takes” to break through the glass ceiling, a supposedly male quality he describes as “the ability to behave as self-aggrandizing jerks.”  But as women, successful executives, and the authors of THE POWER OF NICE: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness, we take issue not only with Shirky’s claim that women lack the means to get ahead, but with his assertion that “nice girls” finish last.

A few days after Shirky’s hot-button post hit the Internet, Business Week published a related article online in which it asks “are working women too nice to get to the top?” and we simply couldn’t hold our tongues.  So, we’d like to offer a bit of NICE wisdom: contrary to popular opinion, nice girls can and do get the corner office and we can prove it.

When we released THE POWER OF NICE in 2006 we garnered attention with one powerful, counterintuitive statement: “NICE is the toughest four-letter word you’ll ever hear.”  Four years later, we believe it as strongly as ever, but “nice” still has a bit of an image problem, as evidenced by the articles posted by Clay Shirky and Business Week.  So, we would like to clarify something: nice is not about being a pushover, a Pollyanna, or a wimp, nor is it about being a disingenuous glad handler who panders to her superiors.  Instead, nice people are honest, congenial, empathetic, and receptive and they use those strengths to their advantage to climb—rather than claw—their ways to the top.

The myth of Social Darwinism that has been propagated by our culture, that cut-throat “me vs. you” mentality, which Shirky seems to support in his “Rant” is simply that: a myth. The truth is, regardless of gender, nice people really are more successful throughout life.  It’s the way we live our lives and the way we built our business, The Kaplan Thaler Group, from a tiny start-up to an agency with a billion dollars in billings in under a decade.

Time and time again, researchers have found that nice people make more money, are luckier in love, endure less legal hardships, and even live longer.  In business, they forge lasting professional relationships that benefit them throughout their careers and command—instead of demand—respect even from their fiercest competitors.

So, with that cleared up, we’d like to pose new question: “Are you being NICE enough?”

Posted by Linda and Robin