Kindness is A New “Soft Skill” Leadership Capability

There’s a new “soft skill” that should be prioritized alongside communication, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, teamwork, and collaboration...

It’s Kindness.

And if you’re rolling your eyes, you may be 6 weeks away from realizing you have a major retention issue on your team.

Let me explain…

Between economic uncertainty, return-to-office commuting, aggressive business targets, and dwindling resources, employees are shouldering immense pressure and expected to keep moving forward.

It’s no surprise “quiet quitting” and turning down promotions are growing in popularity in recent months.

Back in May, I mentioned that Kindness and Respect is a capability that should be nurtured and strengthened as business pressures increase.

Here’s how I’ve seen it work:

✅ Create space in meetings to celebrate small wins frequently

✅ Take the time to understand and respect what motivates each member of your team without judgement

✅ Respect your teams time by learning how to make decisions without meetings

✅ Spend time empowering your team on how to make decisions rather than micro-managing

✅ Demonstrate the courage to acknowledge when a business goal is out of reach

✅ Role model pushing back on leadership requests that lack prioritization

💡 Remember: Leading people is a privilege, and people are not built to run through walls. Each member of your team has different skills, motivations, and innate responses to business pressures. Respecting those differences and finding how to maximize the potential of each person is Kindness.