Kind Leaders Are Better Leaders: Use Your Power For Good, Not Evil

The Monday Morning Manager Series #30

Who would you rather work for?

A grumpy, rude boss who works you to death and takes credit for your work?

Or a kind boss who treats you respectfully and knows you are a whole person, not just a worker bee?

‘I cried myself to sleep every night for a year’, confided one of my ex-colleagues a few years later. I had no idea and thought it was just me who couldn’t handle a demanding boss.

Whether you are a corporate leader or an entrepreneur with a small team, you have a massive impact on the daily life of your people.

I’ve had terrible bosses, and I’ve had great bosses, and if you’ve been in the workplace more than a few years, you probably have too.

You have the power to make your team’s working lives fulfilling or a living hell.

Which will you choose?

Being Kind Looks Like This

Realize your team has a life outside of work

Leaders who trust their teams and gauge success by outcomes, not time at the desk, will gain the support and loyalty of their teams.

Your team has a life outside of work.

A life that consists of doctors & dentist appointments. Children who have school plays, and break their arms by falling out of trees.

Burst pipes. Haircuts. Sick pets.

Elderly parents who get dementia and have to be convinced to sell up and live in appropriate accommodation.

Be kind, and let your people attend to all the daily trivia that is tedious enough in itself, let alone when made difficult by an inflexible boss.

Not trusting people and being uncomfortable with having people working from home to let the plumber in is an old-fashioned viewpoint and shows a massive lack of trust.

If you trust someone with a budget, your customers, or an important project, why can’t you trust them to work at home?

Remember that “Do you offer flexible working” is the number one question asked by job candidates in NZ according to the latest Employers & Manufacturers Association update.

Treat your team how you’d treat your best customers

Leadership is about how you behave towards your team, and great leaders treat people fairly, honestly, and kindly.

Being polite and treating your people with respect is not only the right thing to do, but you will reap the rewards in the end.

Businesses invest a lot of time and money finding out who their customers are. Some organizations have customer avatars to help their employees understand their customers better.

To lead your team well, you need to understand your people.

Talk to them, use personality profiling assessments, and ask questions.

Find out what matters to your team and treat them like you’d treat your most valued customers.

Research shows that engagement rises when you treat your team well, and so does the customer experience and the bottom line.

“In short, team members with higher levels of engagement:

produce substantially better outcomes

treat customers better and attract new ones

are more likely to remain with their organization than those who are less engaged

Engaged employees are also healthier and less likely to experience burnout.”

— 4 Factors Driving Record-High Employee Engagement in the US, Jim Harter, www.gallup.com

It’s a win-win.

Use your power for good

As their boss, you have the power to help your team access training & other growth opportunities that will help them move up in their career.

Special projects, secondments, and standing in for you when you are away are all chances for your team members to have a go at something more than their day-to-day job.

If you are kind to your team and help them grow, I promise you that you will be on the way to a high-performing team.

I’ve seen it over and over. Leaders who actively support the career growth of their people and are actively involved in helping their team progress have higher team engagement.

You can either be the sort of leader who blocks training & development (I’ve seen plenty of those) or one who makes sure it happens, even when there isn’t any budget.

And please, please, please make all opportunities open, transparent, and available to everyone.

What’s in it for you?

By being a kind leader, you get a team that likes and respects you and will help out by doing extra work when required.

Many employees are becoming aware of the Quiet Quitting movement, where people do their job and no more.

Generally, the people who quit quietly are overworked and frustrated with their work situation.

If you are one of the better leaders who doesn’t kill the worker geese that lay the golden eggs, you will still be able to rely on extra help when it’s genuinely needed.

If you aren’t, you may find your team quietly quitting and leaving you to cope alone when the sh*t hits the fan.

Final Thoughts

It’s not hard to be kind.

And being kind doesn’t mean you don’t get the job done or ignore poor performance.

It means treating your people well so they can flourish and do their jobs, manage many other out-of-work responsibilities, and flourish in their careers.

Use your power for good, not evil.

I write about leadership & training, and I’ve designed The New Leader’s Starter Kit to help leaders better communicate with their teams. Get your free copy here — The New Leader’s Starter Kit takes you through how to run One-to-Ones and Constructive Feedback sessions & develop professional listening skills — a printable one-to-one form, feedback form and listening skills checklist included.