diff --git a/man/nmcli.xml b/man/nmcli.xml
index 1caafd3176..0404c55e29 100644
--- a/man/nmcli.xml
+++ b/man/nmcli.xml
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@
           <citerefentry><refentrytitle>terminal-colors.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
           Please refer to the <link linkend='colors' endterm='colors.title' /> section for a
           list of color names supported by <command>nmcli</command>.</para>
-          <para>If the environment variable <literal>NO_COLOR</literal> is set (to any value),
+          <para>If the environment variable <literal>NO_COLOR</literal> is set (to any non-empty value),
           then coloring is disabled with mode "auto". Explicitly enabling coloring overrides
           the environment variable.</para>
         </listitem>
diff --git a/src/nmcli/nmcli.c b/src/nmcli/nmcli.c
index 792edf6e0e..82df12ee8d 100644
--- a/src/nmcli/nmcli.c
+++ b/src/nmcli/nmcli.c
@@ -481,7 +481,7 @@ check_colors(NmcColorOption color_option, char **out_palette_str)
         return FALSE;
     }
 
-    if (color_option == NMC_USE_COLOR_AUTO && g_getenv("NO_COLOR")) {
+    if (color_option == NMC_USE_COLOR_AUTO && nm_str_not_empty(g_getenv("NO_COLOR"))) {
         /* https://no-color.org/ */
         return FALSE;
     }