Last Thursday was World Kindness Day.
I was going to do a LinkedIn post, but I didn’t just want to write about being nice to people. That’s not really my thing.
The word “kind” has become a bit of a catchphrase in recent years, to the point that it’s in danger of losing meaning. I didn’t want to write a platitude, I wanted to write something useful.
I struggled to do that in just a short post, so I did something else instead.
But it kept swirling around in my mind over the weekend, until eventually I landed on how I wanted to talk about what kindness at work means and brings. So here is this email.
What does ‘kind’ mean?
The Cambridge dictionary (which is my default as I briefly worked at Cambridge University Press many years ago) defines kind as “generous, helpful and thinking of other people’s feelings.”
Being kind is not being “nice” (another word that’s tricky to pin down).
For an action to be truly kind it needs to be intentional. It’s not just not doing something mean, it’s actively making the decision to do something positive.
Most of us are kind to the people around us in dozens of ways every day. From offering to make tea, to giving a friend a much-needed compliment, to giving up our seat on the train to someone who needs it more.
But what does it mean to be kind in a work context? How can we be kind to the people we work with? How can we be generous, helpful and think of their feelings?
Going back to that dictionary definition, how do we apply that in the workplace?
Being generous = Giving praise and credit
Everyone likes to feel recognised and valued for what they do. Receiving praise can make a huge difference to how people feel about their work. It can be easy to forget just how powerful it is.
Be generous with your praise and make sure you always give credit where it is due. A group email to the team to highlight someone’s contribution, a quick note to say well done on a presentation, taking the time to tell someone they’re doing a good job - all of these are acts of kindness.
Being helpful = Being clear
It was Brene Brown who coined the phrase “clear is kind.” Her point was that sometimes we can feel we are being kinder to someone by beating around the bush, or not really saying what we mean. But in the long term this doesn’t do them any favours.
If someone is making a mistake, then it’s kinder to let them know than to let them fail. If you need to deliver bad news, it’s better to do so openly and honestly.
Being kind doesn’t mean avoiding difficult conversations, but approaching them with good intentions.
Thinking of others’ feelings = Having empathy
Empathy does not mean you need to share how someone feels, but that you make the time and effort to understand and acknowledge it. Understanding their position and means you are in a much better position to offer help, or to find a solution that works for you both.
Empathy is one of the most important skills we can have in the workplace, as it allows us to see beyond ourselves and understand the bigger picture. Taking the time to understand someone else’s point of view is never wasted time.
Why bother?
The world is a nicer place if we’re kind to each other. But it also makes practical sense.
Kindness builds trust. The more people trust you, the more better your relationships will be. The better your relationships, the more impact you can have.
What’s more, research consistently shows that teams with high levels of trust feel safer, make better decisions and perform better.
So this isn’t just the ‘fluffy stuff’. Being kind means making an intentional decision to create a better and more successful place to work.
If you’re interested in hearing more about kindness, check out Time for Kindness
If you’d like to practice being a little kinder to yourself, there’s still time to register for my webinar on Resilience, Stress and Burnout tomorrow at 12.30pm.