This week’s Kind Leader focus: Defining Kindness! When I started writing The Kind Leader, I interviewed twenty eight people about their experiences with kindness and leadership. One of the first questions I asked them during their Kind Leader interview was to define kindness. And although most people could give me an example of a kind act (helping someone get their bag down from the overhead bin on an airplane), actually defining kindness itself, gave people pause to think. And that was very interesting to me. Because, as well as modeling behavior for others to follow, how people act when they are wearing their Leader Hat, creates culture…of an organization and a community and country too. So if a leader doesn’t have a clear definition of what kindness is, how will they be able to communicate that to others and set the standards for how people act, react and interact in their organization, on their team or in their family? How will they determine what actions, behavior and words are kind or unkind? Below, you’ll see the definition of kindness that I created after listening to the thoughts of the twenty eight people I interviewed for the book. This week, please ask yourself: 1. How do I define kindness? 2. Have I clearly communicated that to those who follow me when I have my Leader Hat on at work, at home and in the community! I’d love to hear your definition of kindness! Please share in the comments below!
(And special, kind thanks to Marie Pawlak for designing the beautiful graphic!)
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