{"id":1457,"date":"2014-07-16T07:10:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T11:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=1457"},"modified":"2014-07-16T07:12:36","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T11:12:36","slug":"pickles-kindness-employee-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=1457","title":{"rendered":"Pickles, Kindness & Employee Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What do pickles, kindness and employee engagement have in common? Read on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This morning my younger son was packing up to head to Vermont for a few days with a friend and his family. He had just returned from the bagel shop with a Baker\u2019s Dozen and a container of cream cheese to share during the trip. On his way out the door I remembered that last evening I had brewed up our first batch of summer refrigerator pickles from our bounty of organic garden cucumbers. (For those of you who think pickles must be made in a crock and \u201ccooked\u201d for months, there\u2019s a shortcut that actually tastes better and only takes 3 or 4 days. Think “crunchy” and Google\u00a0\u201cgarlic dill refrigerator pickles<\/a>.)\u201d<\/p>\n

I suggested to my son that he take a jar to his host family. His response surprised me. He said he believed one kind gesture (the bag of bagels) was sufficient. I reminded him that you can never do too many nice things for others.<\/p>\n

Same applies to leaders in any organization. Who in the C-Suite is tasked with doing the “right” thing and keeping everyone happy, the equivalent of a Chief Kindness Officer? It all starts with the CEO. \u00a0How often do you hear about companies doing\u00a0nice things just because they want to, as opposed to well crafted PR campaigns or corporate window dressing? Some do. Howard Schultz at Starbucks <\/a>just announced a program to pay college tuition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Gallup<\/a>, only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Do you think building kindness into the corporate culture\u00a0might raise that engagement? Acts of kindness build trust. They make for good business.<\/p>\n

I have compiled a short list of the various ways leaders can build trust through deliberate acts of kindness.<\/strong><\/p>\n