Leadership Requires Kindness.
You don’t have to be a leader to be kind.
You do have to be kind to be a leader.
As leaders, we operate in the grey. Not in some sort of CIA/ black-ops grey world, but the the grey of interpreting policies and systems to fit real-life people and real life situations.
A colleague came to me once after a family member passed away. Losing someone is never easy, especially when there is a complicated estate to unravel.
My colleague asked for time to deal with it. I could have pointed out how there is only so much annual leave (already used up), and that estates aren’t really part of bereavement leave for immediate family. I could have made life difficult.
Instead, I asked what was needed, and for how long? Was this a one-off event, or was the estate going to take every Tuesday afternoon until forever to finish up? I tried to assess what was the impact on our team.
I tried - and I believe succeeded - in stepping into kindness.
You don’t have to be a leader to be kind.
You do have to be kind to be a leader.
After that life-event, the same colleague repeatedly gave me, and the organisation, 110% effort. Not once was there a question of “Is this person engaged?”
An investment of kindness paid a reward of engagement. Of loyalty. Of buy-in.
I look back and think “I could have spent hours of meetings talking about vision and engagement to get that same level of interaction.”
Instead, because I showed personal care, personal kindness, the world of work was radically different.
It is easy to be strict or restrictive. For some, it may appear easier to keep “work for work” and “home for home”.
But we work with people. With lives. And kids. And lockdowns (thanks COVID). We have no idea of the complexities our people face at times.
Kindness as a leader is essential. Leadership requires kindness.
As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern so clearly articulated: “Be Strong. Be Kind.”
Looking back through history, leadership is often presented with a persona of aloof detachment at best and a persona of cold, stubborn calculation at worst.
Yet if we read the biographies of men like Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and MacArthur, we find it is the moments of personal interaction with their men - the moments of kindness - that made all the difference.
What would kindness look like in your leadership world?
Who do you need to be kind to?
How are you practicing kindness toward your team?