At GLAM, we view kindness as a significantly important quality of leadership. And with World Kindness Day around the corner on Friday, 13 November, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on how to be a kind leader, to be kind in your community, and to help our children understand the importance of being kind!
Leadership and kindness aren't two words that you often hear together – but kindness is very much a leadership requirement. You don’t have to take our word for it though, Amy Cuddy (Harvard Business School), together with her colleagues clearly demonstrated that leaders who lead with warmth are more effective than leaders who lead with toughness.
We believe that Kindness in leadership is essential, especially if you want to improve the engagement of your team and earn their trust and respect, and by doing so, improve their performance, well-being, and happiness. Kindness is defined in the Oxford dictionary as: “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.”
Kindness Resources
We’re all leaders – it’s not about your job title or grade – leading with kindness can help you be a more effective and impactful colleague, too. If you’re unsure on where to start, why not begin by taking a look at this action plan guide – it’s full of inspiration, taking you through “seven key ingredients that make for a positive and kind culture where people want to show up and do their best”:
1. Setting a Tone
2. Modelling Behavior
3. Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment
4. Strengths, Mistakes, and Growth Mindset
5. Trust, Boundaries, and Belonging
6. Communication and Collaboration
7. Celebration
This year, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has also introduced a new challenge, which everyone at GLAM HQ is going nuts about!
“Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to complete a series of kindness activities to fill in 60 'hearts.' Each act of kindness is worth one, two, or three 'hearts' based on how challenging they are: one-heart activities are quick and easy, two-heart activities are more involved, and three-heart activities are challenging & will take more time.”
If you’re feeling inspired and want to teach your children about kindness too, check out a whole heap of resources by the Foundation here.
We hope these tools and resources on kindness will help you to think about the impact of being kind plays in your daily life, professional, and at home. Together, let’s commit to daily random acts of kindness and kindness delivered with purposeful intent. By doing so, we can help make the world a better place whilst creating tomorrow's leaders that we will want to work for and with.
Get creative! Paint a rock with a message to brighten-up someone else’s day and leave it for someone to find! If you're looking for inspiration, check out @theKindnessrock! #RocksOfKindness #PaintedRocks #GLAMRocks
Our mission at GLAM is a simple one: To equip girls across the globe with the skills and confidence to seek leadership roles, feel the power within their voice, and create positive change in the world. We're 100% focused on taking our award-winning program virtual, and increasing our online presence and content offerings for girls.
In addition to joining our #GLAMSquad, you can also help by:
Donating funds – We’re always grateful for funding as we are committed to offering GLAM for free. Giving feels good! Donate here.
Partnering with us – We love collaborating and have some great partnership opportunities! To learn more, connect with Ali for a chat.
Getting social and sharing our story - By following, liking, and engaging with GLAM on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
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