Kindness always wins. Twice a year we bring in a speaker to spend time with our customer facing team members at the city. This time, my friend and pastor Mike Linch delivered the message. Mike has had a profound influence on my journey in both life and leadership. He exemplifies kindness.
I had intended to make some opening comments, introduce Mike, and get back over to City Hall for a meeting I needed to be at. Thankfully, I was able to push the meeting back so that I could sit in for the majority of his talk. My biggest takeaway from his presentation…“kindness always wins.”
Simple, yet memorable. It Stuck with me and spurred deep reflection. What is the victorious power that lies within these three simple words? Let’s check out a few:
Kindness Calms
In a world divided, polarized, and full of tension…kindness calms. Everyone has a strategy on how to win the argument, the debate, or the disagreement. Few know how to calm the situation. Calm is contagious. It settles everything down when things begin to spiral.
Kindness diffuses the situation, it calms the seas. It sets forth an unexpected response to the other side, one that brings them down to our level, not escalates us to theirs. Calm is kind and kind is a winning strategy.
Kindness Is Needed
People need kindness. The world is desperate for kind leaders. The days of berating, talking down to, and belittling, are gone. People matter. The way they feel matters.
Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
The current workforce has been exposed to a world-wide pandemic, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, severe inflation, and political chaos. I often wonder if this generation of leaders experienced the wear and tear of a full career in such a short period of time.
With these added stressors, people just need kindness. Not rude, not critical, and not hateful, just kind. It just wins.
Kindness Cares
Just in the last week, we have watched our brothers and sisters in Florida, South and East Georgia, East Tennessee, and Western North Carolina experience one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history. Hurricane Helene and Milton left their permanent mark on these areas.
How have the people in the Southest responded? You guessed it, kindness. I have watched churches, companies, and non-profit organizations care for their neighbors. They have given their time, talents, and treasure to help those jump start the rebuilding process.
Devastation is temporary when kindness Intercedes. It’s the caring thing to do. Caring is a component of kindness, it’s the key to victory.
Kindness Compels
Great leaders have influence. Kindness is a way to compel those who we influence to follow us. Leadership guru John Maxwell said, “He that thinketh he leadeth, and hath no one following is only taking a walk.” The harsh and hateful may believe they are leading, but they are really only taking a walk.
People will follow those that are kind. It does not mean that we cannot be firm or frustrated, but we cannot abandon kindness. Followers demand respect, proper treatment, and dignity to be compelled to follow. Every willing follower trails a kind leader. Kindness wins followers.
Conclusion
If we want to stand out in this world…be kind. Sadly, it can be unexpected. There aren’t a lot of self-help books on the market to be more rude, more harsh, more demanding, or more disrespectful. Those things can come pretty natural without a lot of study.
Being kind is a choice. One that we make daily. A decision that requires us to step outside our own circumstances and serve others regardless.
We all have the ability to be kind, the real question is do we have the willingness? Kindness is refreshing, uncommon, and different. Without a doubt, kindness always wins.