While journaling my thoughts in the evening, a practice I find essential in daily life, I discovered a focus on kindness emphasised by leaders in both the recent Canadian and Australian elections, which resonated with me. What caught my attention is that both current leaders talked about kindness as a strength, not a weakness.
I’m all for more kindness in the world. It can be a pretty harsh place at times. The last thing we need is more leaders who treat kindness like a deficit. Kindness begets kindness. It doesn’t prevent us from having tough conversations, questioning behaviour, or holding people to account. If anything, leading with kindness can help us do those things better.
As Brené Brown says, “Clear is kind.” Kindness isn’t about being lenient or letting things slide; instead, it’s about approaching others and ourselves with clarity, care and respect.
So, what does it mean to practice kindness?
Here are a few ways:
- Lead with kindness – Show genuine care and compassion for the people around you. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
- Listen with kindness – Stay open, curious, and suspend judgment. Real listening can be one of the kindest things we do. Try it and see the response.
- Leverage kindness – Kindness builds trust and strengthens relationships.
- Love with kindness – Is your love conditional or freely given? Kindness isn’t about control, it’s about connection.
- Learn with kindness – We all make mistakes. We learn more when we know we’re not being judged and when someone’s willing to help us understand.
Importantly, you have little chance of showing kindness to others without empathy and compassion for yourself. I’m particularly interested in the kindness of leaders. It’s something the world needs more than ever right now.
If this resonates with you, take a moment this week to notice where kindness shows up in your leadership or where you can enhance it. Notice the kindness around you. In what form does it show up for you? If not try being kind first and see what happens. What would it look like to lead, listen, or learn with a little more kindness?
What’s a kindness moment that’s stuck with you? Kindness is contagious, I’d love to share some of these over the coming weeks in a confidential way so others may be inspired cathryn@maverickminds.com.au.