Anyone fancy a nice cuppa?

Have you ever thought about the most common adjective used to describe a cup of tea? That would be ‘nice’. Not hot, nor brown, sometimes relaxing,but always nice. Possibly one of the most nondescript words in the English dictionary.  So you can imagine my mixed reaction when I asked my manager at the time what he thought my key strength was in client delivery and he responded “you’re nice”. Nice? What on earth did he mean? Was this a polite way of saying I had no real skills but was forgiven because the client thought I was a nice person? Could there ever be a less interesting or meaningful word that he could have used to describe my USP? Or was he really onto something?

The truth is I could never really put my finger on why some projects seemed to work out well, or why I was frequently thrown into certain situations. Yes I could pick up new business and technical concepts pretty quickly, but I knew that there must be other skills I was using, albeit unconsciously. Could it be that I shared some characteristics with the illustrious cuppa? Was it about introducing an ‘Ooh Tetley’ moment to rethink situations and agree a way to take things forward?  Was it about being consistent in any situation – come rain or shine my cuppa is always rich brown with no sugar and elicits the same response, ‘ahhhhhh’. Or maybe it was to do with encouraging forums for listening, sharing ideas and dare I say gossip over a hypothetical ‘nice cuppa’ and a digestive biscuit? Maybe all or none of the above.

So in my search for the meaning of nice, I have decided to share some of my experiences and thoughts to discover whether being nice can be a marketable asset that can deliver real value or if I need to redirect my musings.

…and to my dear friend and colleague who gave me the proverbial kick up the backside to stop talking (incessantly) about this and start putting finger to keyboard…..nice one!