Here and now on November 13, right between Election Day 2020 and Thanksgiving Day 2020–two fairly prominent dates on most calendars–let’s talk about World Kindness Day, a global event growing in scale and scope for more than 20 years.

Now why post anything about World Kindness Day on LaurelComms, a site and business focused on #CommunicationsContentConnections for business organizations and individuals? Does kindness have a place in business? Is kindness a leadership quality?

Yes, and yes.

Positive Power of Kindness

Each year World Kindness Day shows up on November 13; it just happens to be a Friday the 13^th this time around the sun. First marked in 1998 and originated by the World Kindness Movement (which has a presence in 28 countries including the U.S.), the occasion has an official purpose: “to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and common thread of kindness which binds us.”

Almost sounds like business-speak, doesn’t it?

Speaking of business speak, and the place of kindness in business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation published the “Business Case for Kindness” (https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/business-kindness/business-case-kindness#:~:text=Kindness%20is%20a%20key%20element,honesty%2C%20integrity%2C%20and%20respect.)

Data from numerous business consultancies and academic sources make the case. Among the arguments:

• PwC concluded kindness increases employee commitment to the organization, eliminates communication barriers, minimizes negative competition among staff, and strengthens relationships with other business partners and investors.
• University of Delaware research demonstrated that a culture of kindness at work may attract employees to a company, encourage employees to work with more compassion, and lead to lower recruiting, hiring, training costs, and higher productivity.
• The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor said the psychological safety behind sharing information at work is increased in environments where empathy and kindness are supported and considered crucial in learning from failure and fostering innovation.

Mindset and Culture Change

The Chamber encourages organizations to change their mindsets and cultures to make kindness more pervasive. Among the recommendations:

• Promote diversity and inclusion
• Emphasize gender equality
• Focus on employee wellbeing
• Engender an environment of empathy
• Institutionalize core values and
• Endorse inspirational leaders.

This isn’t new news or breakthrough material. It’s just not often that we see communications or content about kindness connected to processes, product and people in the workplace.

Kindness in Leaders

On the people front, many influential voices attempt to make the case for kindness as a business leadership attribute. To name just two, the Forbes article “How Purposeful Kindness Can Make You A Better Leader” authors David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom cite Harvard Business School research that “even before establishing their own credibility or competence, leaders who project warmth are more effective than people who lead with toughness…kindness and warmth appears to accelerate trust.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidsturt/2018/10/24/how-purposeful-kindness-can-make-you-a-better-leader/?sh=47b8ea447b7a.

And Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School research noted that “Great leaders create the trust achieved by kindness by not just listening to employee feedback, but by responding to their suggestions and encouraging employees to offer their ideas for improving the organization. Such leaders select, train, and reward managers and supervisors at all levels who understand the importance of treating employees as key contributors… Companies with leaders who understand the value of kindness recognize that the message that they send to employees about their value pays off in greater commitment, increased employee engagement, and much greater extra-mile behavior.”

So, while today may be our once-a-year World Kindness Day, where promotional sites encourage we do just one intentional act of kindness for another, why set a limit? Why be so constrained? If we adopt just a little more of the kindness contemplated below, every day, surely we, and our organizations, our communities and our world, could be just a little better.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”

–Lao Tzu

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