It is often considered normal and necessary to be tough and uncompromising when trying to get a serious project completed on time, on-budget, and to the highest standards. Here are a few reasons that constructive kindness can also be very effective in leadership and working as a team.
1. Kindness boosts employee wellbeing and productivity.
A study conducted by the University of Michigan and Georgia State University found that when employees are friendly and personable, help each other out, and the working atmosphere is pleasant and not fear-based, employees not only provide better customer service on their own accord, without prompting, but they also develop better relationships at work. In turn, these conditions result in an increase in productivity levels.
2. Kindness’s effect on the brain helps improve teamwork.
Judith Glaser, CEO of Benchmark Communications and author of Creating WE, says our brains are actually hard-wired to respond to kindness and trust: “When someone is kind and respectful to us, our brains produce more oxytocin and dopamine, which helps us relax, feel open to others, and be more sharing and cooperative,” says Glaser. This is certainly good news for people working in collaborative spaces.
3. Kindness promotes trust across the enterprise.
In PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, where 1,409 CEOs were interviewed in 83 countries, it was found that kindness boosts employee commitment to the organization, cuts down on communication barriers, reduces toxic competition among staff, and bolsters relationships with various stakeholders.
Learn more on kindness in the workplace by checking out these articles.
Everything You Need to Know About Great Leadership
Constructive Kindness in Leadership
