Leadership and Kindness

So goes the leader, so goes the culture.
So goes the culture, so goes the company

So goes Simon Sinek’s assessment of the importance of leadership, and who could argue?

When I reflect on the 8 corporate employers I had across a 30-year career, and the count of CEO’s I supported, there is an undeniably direct correlation between leader, culture and financial results.

With no exception at all.

And yet, despite the plethora of lists of leadership qualities than you’ll find in the zillion books on the matter, I think one stands out head and shoulders above all others.

And it is the one quality that the very best of the very best had.

Kindness.

Not just “acting” it or “doing” it, but truly “being” it.

Breathing it in, breathing it out.

And there’s data to back it up:

-> Google’s Project Aristotle found that the highest-performing teams share one thing in common: psychological safety. Kindness (leaders speak, listen, and support) is the engine of that safety.

-> A 2018 Harvard Business Review study found that compassionate leaders increase employee retention and engagement, especially during crisis periods.

-> Kim Cameron of the University of Michigan has led research showing that positive relational energy (sparked by kind interactions) is the most powerful predictor of high-performing organizations. He co-founded the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship (what a name!).

Even Satya Nadella, credited with Microsoft’s cultural turnaround, named empathy and kindness as his defining leadership traits.

So how about this - kindness as a competitive advantage, kindness as a predictor of financial performance, kindness as the cornerstone of a culture of success.

And extrapolate it further, kindness as the driver of long-term shareholder value.

Wow.

To steal a line from Imelda May’s beautiful poem on love (Home), I’m choosing kindness over being right.