Kindness in Leadership

In today’s fast-moving, unpredictable and disruptive world, kindness plays an important role. Kindness in Leadership explores both the concept and practice of kind leadership and combines an innovative mix of personal views from leaders with explorations of organisational philosophies and practices. It opens with a definition of kindness and its contours and underpinnings and then explores the importance of kindness within different organisations, parts of the world, economic strata, age groups, and genders, drawing on interviews and research on organisational compassion and neuroscience.

This second edition has been updated, taking the post-pandemic world into account by considering the role of kindness in hybrid environments, the creation of inclusive and psychologically safe workplaces, the impact of social media, how business translating kindness into equitable outcomes, and the environmental impact of kind and purposeful leadership. The organisations profiled are geographically and culturally diverse, showing how these principles have been applied successfully worldwide. Practical tools are incorporated, such as discussion questions and self-reflective exercises, to help the reader engage in applying the concepts to their own practice.

This is a stimulating and thought-provoking text for practicing managers and leaders in organisations of all shapes and sizes, academics involved in educating for leadership, and students aspiring to develop their own kind and compassionate leadership style.