The most important attribute in a corporate leader? The number one reported response? Integrity.
(Robert Half Management Resources)
Shared in a recent edition of The Economist, the study and commentary goes on to site kindness as a key driver of success. Corporate leader or not, kindness can be the fuel that unlocks the best in you and others and in our research over 80% of us have an iAM value around it.
Next Monday Chris Brindley MBE will be joining the weekly free 20 minute iAM webinar to share his top tips on actively using your iAM. As we chatted yesterday, he explained how remembering his iAM values around kindness and integrity allowed him to make the biggest authentic and right difference when making massively important decisions in today’s challenging and sensitive scenarios. He has also really kindly posted his iAM on LinkedIn to promote the approach to help more people understand who they are through iAM.
Kindness. It is a word that I see is so overlooked in business today. People are quick to discount it as fluff, soft and not business like. Interestingly when under pressure it is far too easily f
orgotten as we overdo our focus and drive for results under pressure.
David M. Long, assistant professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Mason School of Business, shares, “Followers determine how trustworthy a leader is based on their ability, their benevolence and their integrity…when employees believe their leader has integrity, they associate this trait with kindness and having good intentions as opposed to selfish motives”.
Forbes shares that science proves kindness is your competitive advantage.
Kindness has a massive ripple affect too. A study in Spain published in the US National Institute of Health showed that when people were assigned to be ‘givers’, and asked to be kind to a number of ‘receivers’ over a set period of time, the receivers were 278% more likely to be kind to others versus the study control group. An incredible contagion.
Decisions made with kindness change lives. I have kindness in my iAM central wave and so it’s an intrinsic part of how I go about my life and lead in our work. It is driving the weekly free iAM webinars and the countless calls I am having throughout the week to help as many people as possible right now. Kindness impacts people. What are you doing to be kind in all of this? A few reflections to support you to be even kinder;
- How fast are your days and weeks going? If at speed, are you remembering to be kind and care and feel?
- Are you managing your frustrations and not blaming others for your negative moments? Only you have the power to control your emotional response so use it to be accountable.
- Others are not here to make you happy. You make you happy. What if your role was then to make others happy? What would you change?
- What labels have you given yourself? Focused? Red? Action driven? Do these cover up the softer side of you?
- Play with being the soft, kind, caring you that those closest to you know. Share more in your words and expressions with your work colleagues. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know them really well. You can still inspire them with your kindness.
Take care and be you. Email potential@courageoussuccess.com to sign up for the free Monday 1pm GMT webinars or to get the recording.