Since you asked me so nicely - choose to be nice

I bet you've had that said to you.

A couple of days ago, I received a really nice email from a complete stranger who had found me on LinkedIn and wanted my advice on an issue. It was going to be quite long winded and I really didn’t have the time to spend on her request, but I actually found myself saying out loud to no one “Well, since you asked me so nicely…”

It got me thinking. Had she simply dropped me a line asking for help, I would have responded to her, but spent minimal time doing so. Because she had taken the time and trouble to find out a little about me, read some of my posts and then got in touch, to me she had gone out of her way before making her request. It worked; I put more time and effort into her request.

As someone that spends a great deal of time training others on how to use social sites such as LinkedIn, many people have said to me that if they receive a connection request from someone that hasn’t spent a little time to personalize the invitation, they simply don’t bother to accept it. Is it the same philosophy? “Since you asked me so nicely…”

Being nice and doing nice things for others is a choice, not something in our DNA that we were born with. Yes our upbringing will have an affect on us, how we turn out, but as adults, we choose to be the way we are.

Maya Angelo said “ I’ve learned that people will forget what you’ve said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

I raise my cup of tea to you all. Choose to be nice.

What are your recent experiences of giving or receiving something nice from someone?

Linda Coles is the author of “Learn marketing with social media in 7 days” (Wiley) and is an author, speaker and trainer on building relationships. She lives in New Zealand on a fig orchard. You can get a free sample of a chapter of her book by registering for her newsletter.