What does a kind leader look like? And how can you spot them? That’s what I’m thinking about a lot at the moment.
It seems to me that the leaders we most often hear about (particularly in politics and in business) are the ones that follow what I think of as the ‘scary monster’ mould. They are very often loud, aggressive, tough, ‘strong’. In his book ‘Kind. The quiet power of kindness at work’ Graham Allcott describes this as the myth that being a bastard is how you succeed in business.
These types of leaders scorn anything that they perceive as weakness. And kindness is something that, if they allowed themselves to talk about it, they would deride as weak, fluffy and not a behaviour for a successful leader.
Like Graham, I wholeheartedly disagree with this view. Kindness is powerful because it connects us. It creates bonds, trust and collective action that gets results. It is an important attribute for successful leaders.
I’ve explored this more in a LinkedIn article which you can read here.