What does kindness have to do with leading?
Without kindness work sucks – for us and for the people who work with us.
As leaders, our success lies in our ability to keep good people involved, committed, contributing, growing themselves, and developing others.
But good people don’t trust unkind leaders – no one likes following a jerk.
The good news is that being kind is the one thing we have 100% control of every day in every moment. We cannot control customers, co-workers, personalities, the markets, the weather, the traffic, or other jerks.
We can only control how we treat each other – our responses, our character, and our commitment to serve others’ success. We can be kind without exception for stress, pressure, job titles, job levels, or our own momentary lack of self-confidence.
Next time we lose patience, yell, belittle, or disparage another, let’s let a breath in and ask ourselves, am I being kind or am I being kind of a jerk?
And then own the responsibility we have at every moment and with everyone to be human first.