Invest in kindness, the ROI is incredible

We hope you’re enjoying our top tips for creating intentionally brave spaces. So far we have talked about relevance, nerve, and tenacity [done the ‘Soul Trained Way’], and next we’re going to talk about kindness and alchemy.

At Soul Trained, the length and depth of our warmth knows no bounds, but it isn’t all unicorns, love hearts, and warm fuzzies. Far from it, in fact.

Fundamentally, we’re about shift and we believe that shift happens most radically and sustainably through a process we call ‘hard humankindness’. Hard humankindness blends a serious amount of empathy and vulnerability with a plentiful dollop of nerve and candor in order to bring about the right balance of support and challenge.

Kindness doesn’t cost a penny, yet the ROI is immense. Here are some top tips for adding the value of kindness to your leadership practice:

• Assume positive intent. This is not the same as letting people walk all over you, nor is it the same as letting people off the hook, and it certainly isn’t about not holding others to account for their behavior. The act of assuming positive intent is a conscious process of recognizing and remembering that we are all doing the best we can with the resources we have available to us at the time; that none of us get up in the morning to come to work to do a deliberately bad job. Notice what happens to the way you approach problem situations or conflict in team relationships when you start from a place of assuming positive intent. It will change your life.
• On a similar, but different note, our next top tip is to give people the benefit of that doubt. When we give people the benefit of our doubt by suppressing our suspicions [until proven otherwise], we demonstrate that we respect their model of the world and we show-up as someone who is interested, curious, and open. Solving problems from this place is infinitely easier and more enjoyable, for all concerned.
• Finally, the value of kindness reminds us to meet people where they are at or, as we like to say at Soul Trained, to meet people at their bus stop. What do we mean by that? Simply, instead of trying to convince your people that your way is the right way, take a moment or two to explore, unpack, and respect where they are coming from and the many ways in which they interpret the world. See how quickly your people grow and improve their performance when you meet them where they are at, instead of having them meet you where you are at.

How kind will you be today?