Survival of the Nicest

Few people know that Charles Darwin wrote another book, The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin discovered, and others have supported it with further research, that emotional displays (rather than words) form the basis for trusting relationships, teamwork and community.

We tend to dismiss emotion in the workplace, and downplay the significance of niceness in the business world. But, it turns out that Survival of the Fittest is less accurate than Survival of the Nicest when it comes to human evolution - being nice, being social helped humans thrive more than being big, tough and strong. We have evolved an "acute tendency to care, by highly-coordinated face-to-face social exchanges." When dealing with others, we are in tune with, and guided by, emotional displays. We are attracted to nice, to people who are committed to our well being.

According to Dacher Keltner in Born to be Good, "we find that it is not the domineering, muscle-flexing, fear-inspiring, backstabbing types who gain elevated status in the eyes of their peers. Instead, it is the socially intelligent individuals who advance the interests of other group members who rise in social hierarchies."

In the last two days, I was pleasantly surprised by two exciting new business opportunities that were presented to me. Both were the result, pure and simple, of positive, nice, trusting relationships. While occasionally, nice guys do finish last, in the long and continuing run of human evolutionary history, it's the nicest people that survive and thrive.

So, like Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86 of Control, choose the forces of goodness and niceness, instead of evil and nastiness. Work on your smile and on being nice. Because it works.