Playing Nice Does Pay Off

There is something to be said about being persistent and being ruthless in business. That aggressive nature we hear about so often in the business world does have its place. You go after what you want and you make sure you get it! We have seen this work!

But there is another side I want to remind you of. Playing the game, even if you think it is the stupidest thing ever will sometimes work out for you. Being the nice guy/woman does pay off. You might not see it immediately, but in the end, there are a lot of benefits to this.

One of my clients, just yesterday, was offered by her editor a great new writing opportunity. Yes, I understand she writes well. Yes, I understand she has a following for her books. But the one of the biggest reasons she was selected was the simple fact that she played the game and she is nice to work with. She gets her revisions in on time, if not early. She does all she can to make things easy for the editor when she sends in proposals. She does her share of the work with the marketing. And, most importantly, she doesn't complain. She isn't a pain in the you know what.

Within the teaching profession that I also work in, I also see this. One of the colleges I have taught at is now in the middle of some serious contract issues with the administration. This means people are really up in arms and being pretty darn vocal about their opinions. Of course when this happens, people really don't pay that much attention to the who else is around them, or even what words came out of their mouth. One department on the campus has been the most vocal and needless to say, when there is funding for new teaching positions, they seem shocked they did not get the funding. It went to another department - one that was quiet and didn't play the game.

When we are looking for new authors to sign, your personality does come into play. We are looking for "TEAM" players. This is not to say we don't want your opinions and your thoughts. This also doesn't mean we don't want you to carve out your own place. But we want the nice people on our team.

Just a reminder for the weekend.