diff --git a/man/nmcli.xml b/man/nmcli.xml
index 1caafd3176..9bda9db0af 100644
--- a/man/nmcli.xml
+++ b/man/nmcli.xml
@@ -129,8 +129,9 @@
           <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),
-          then coloring is disabled with mode "auto". Explicitly enabling coloring overrides
+          <para>If the environment variable <literal>NO_COLOR</literal> is set (to any non-empty value),
+          then coloring is disabled with mode "auto". If the environment variable <literal>CLICOLOR_FORCE</literal>
+          is set (to any non-empty value), then coloring is enabled with mode "auto". Explicitly enabling coloring overrides
           the environment variable.</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/nmcli/nmcli.c b/src/nmcli/nmcli.c
index 792edf6e0e..6de42faa00 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;
     }
@@ -489,7 +489,9 @@ check_colors(NmcColorOption color_option, char **out_palette_str)
     term = g_getenv("TERM");
 
     if (color_option == NMC_USE_COLOR_AUTO) {
-        if (nm_streq0(term, "dumb") || !isatty(STDOUT_FILENO))
+        if (nm_str_not_empty(g_getenv("CLICOLOR_FORCE"))) {
+            color_option = NMC_USE_COLOR_YES;
+        } else if (nm_streq0(term, "dumb") || !isatty(STDOUT_FILENO))
             return FALSE;
     }