The German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described kindness as “the golden chain by which society is bound”.
Yet kindness is not a word that is commonly associated with business, even though the act of doing business is a social interaction as well as a financial transaction.
On the contrary, business is often conducted in ways that are unkind to both individuals and the wider world.
Nevertheless, businesses are starting to wake up to the importance of kindness.
This is partly in reaction to changing societal expectations around how they should treat their employees, customers and the environment – expectations that are widely broadcast through digital channels.
But it is also down to a greater understanding of the beneficial impact of kindness.
Kindness is trending thanks to organisations such as the World Kindness Movement and events such as annual World Kindness Day on 13 November, which aims to celebrate and promote kindness in all its forms.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘kind’ as being “of a friendly, generous, benevolent or gentle nature”.
While it may not seem immediately obvious where these behaviours fit in a commercial context, kindness is actually the foundation for business success.
Since business is fundamentally about achieving mutual benefit, kindness has intrinsic commercial value, according to Philippa Foster Back CBE, director of the Institute of Business Ethics and a former Association of Corporate Treasurers president.
She says: “You want both parties to any transaction to come out of it feeling good, and kindness contributes to that.”
Kindness also plays an important role in the workplace.
Studies suggest that being kind boosts personal wellbeing, strengthens interpersonal relationships and establishes virtuous cycles of positive behaviour within organisations – because people have been on the receiving end of an act of kindness themselves, they are then kind towards others.
The practice of kindness in the workplace is not a ‘one size fits all’; it involves an element of subjectivity
The power of kindness, research undertaken by consultancy Hall & Partners and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, found that kind behaviours and actions have a positive impact on the culture and performance of organisations.
This is because they build trust, collaboration, productivity and loyalty.
The research also revealed that when people work in a kind environment, they are more inclined to be kind to customers.
“Kindness contributes towards a sense of belonging, safety and wellbeing, which is inherent in vibrant workplace cultures that achieve results,” says Colin D Ellis, an expert in culture change and author of Culture Fix: How to Create A Great Place to Work.
“When we’re kind towards others, we experience a feeling called ‘the helper’s high’. Sharing knowledge, coaching or mentoring, buying someone a coffee, offering an empathetic ear, or offering to take work off a colleague – all of these things create a state of euphoria that is caused by the release of endorphins in the brain.”
Of course, it’s not always easy to embed kindness within an organisational culture – especially if that culture has not been especially kind in the past.
“You have to work hard at it and call out those instances where people are demonstrating kindness for it to become embedded,” notes Foster Back.
The practice of kindness in the workplace is not a ‘one size fits all’; it involves an element of subjectivity.
Some people will view kindness as their colleagues being nice to them, not displaying grumpiness at work or being understanding when they experience a personal crisis.
Others will view kindness in a more institutional context – for example, which policies and procedures does their organisation have in place to protect their welfare and ensure that they are treated fairly by managers and peers?
For instance, a recent study conducted by professional networking site LinkedIn found that 71% of HR professionals named anti-harassment as one of the trends most important to the future of recruiting and HR.
Then there is the adage: ‘be cruel to be kind’.
Foster Back points out that being kind to somebody may mean having a difficult conversation with them. “They might not be aware that their behaviour is inappropriate,” she suggests.
“The classic example of that is banter. Some people find the odd joke or bit of banter amusing. Others may feel like they’re being disrespected. So, the kindness is to say to the person that their banter is not landing well, because they may be totally unaware of it.”
Kindness does mean different things to different people, concurs Mark Simmonds, a creativity and innovation trainer and author of Breakdown and Repair: A Father’s Tale of Stress and Success.
Having said that, trying to accommodate every form of kindness can lead to a confused corporate culture. So, leaders who want to build a kind organisation have a choice to make.
“Either you make a very clear decision around what kind of culture you want to cultivate, recruit accordingly and strive to demonstrate the one form of kindness across the board,” he says. “Or you make sure that each and every individual gets training on how to be kind in different ways, depending on whom they are dealing with.”
The latter route is the one that Simmonds recommends because it enables organisations to better capitalise on the diversity of their workforce. But he acknowledges that it is more challenging.
Finally, it’s important to prevent semantics from getting in the way of the business embracing an overarching culture of kindness. “Sometimes an easier word to use is respect,” says Foster Back.
In a corporate context, she notes, “most people would see the word respect as being more user-friendly, but kindness is implicit within the description of respect.”
Sally Percy is a freelance business journalist and editor