Move over tough cold leaders, there’s another personality that is proving to be more successful when it comes to leading others – the kind caring leader.
Tough leaders tend to believe that growth comes from struggles and therefore normally put pressure on their employees. This does more harm than good – it creates stress, which is unhealthy and contagious easily spreading from employee to employee. Being a kind boss pays off for many reasons and there are studies to back it up. Employees enjoy working for a leader who genuinely cares about them and their well-being. Would you prefer to work for someone who causes stress and doesn’t care about you? Exactly.
It might be challenging to keep kind and calm during stressful moments, but one study concluded that when leaders are fair to their team, they display more citizenship behavior and are more productive, both individually and as a team. If you can keep cool under stress and demonstrate empathy, you’re probably a natural born leader that will see success. Here are some reasons why…
- Kindness improves productivity and employee well being. While stress is contagious so is happiness. If one team member is positive and productive, this will spread to others. Being kind is a chain reaction.
- Kindness leads to trust. Regardless of the situation, people trust those who are genuine and kind.
- Kindness creates learning and innovation. Employees should feel safe to learn from their mistakes rather than be discouraged. This safety results in constant improvement.
What constitutes this leadership style is a bit deeper though. Some organisations offer well-being benefits such as working from home, flexibility with time, extra holiday, etc. These perks definitely improve the workplace, but they are strongest (and most beneficial) when paired with a caring leader, that is genuine of course. Here are three characteristics of this natural born leader…
- They find common ground.
- They constantly encourage.
- They are considerate.
Kind leaders are game changers and it time they step up more to do what they were born to do – succeed and spread their energy.