February 17 is Random Act of Kindness day. We're celebrating the occasion by looking at ways to bring kindness into the workplace - and the benefits that kindness can reap for everyone. 
 

Being kind at work 

Did you know that companies with higher rates of politeness, praise and helping others demonstrated higher levels of productivity and engagement and employee retention?
 

While that seems intuitive, it seems that many organisations have lost the art of kindness — and everyone can suffer for it.  
 

What is kindness?

While this might seem like a silly question to ask - surely everyone knows what kindness is, right? - it's actually quite helpful to refresh ourselves on what is genuine kindness, as well as what isn't. 
 

Kindness is the act of helping, supporting, being generous or being compassionate towards another person. 
 

Crucially, true kindness is motivated by the act of being kind alone - not just behaving in a certain way as a means to boost work performance or getting someone to do something for you. Being kind requires nothing in return.
 

How can we be kind at work?

Kindness starts from the top. Colleagues who are kind usually display the following qualities:
 

• They listen to their team 
• They are genuinely interested in their team's wellbeing
• They are patient 
• They are fair, even when they need to address a problem 
• They want to help others find solutions
• They don't seek to blame others
• They don't place undue stress or worry on their colleagues 
• They don't pass burdens along to others
• They never pit people against one another
   

Leaders can and should display similar qualities of kindness. If leadership demonstrates these qualities, it's more likely that their team will too. 
 

Does kindness worsen performance?

In short: no. Being kind improves performance. While cranky colleagues can sometimes get results through fear, most team members will not tolerate unpleasant conditions for a very long and are likely not to corporate with a negative colleague.
 

Being a positive colleague doesn't mean missing targets or ignoring problems - but by being compassionate and acting with kindness, you are much more likely to motivate others in your team to do well, and the results can be transformative. 
 

Avoiding a blame culture 

If you've watched The Apprentice, you'll know that at the end of each episode, Lord Sugar asks the losing team to identify who is to blame for the failure of a task. This is precisely what you should NOT do if you're hoping to avoid a blame culture. 
 

A blame culture - where people seek to publicly criticise or attribute blame to other team members- leads to fear, intimidation and ultimately, poor performance. 
 

When employees feel that they will not be unduly blamed for problems, they are much more likely to be transparent and work together to address issues before they snowball. 
 

Instead, you can work with your team to embrace a learning culture, where problems and mistakes are noted, but no one employee is singled out, and learnings are made from each error.
 

After all, you work as part of a team, and a team is accountable for its successes as well as its failures - not just one person. 
 

While all employees contribute to work culture, it is down to leadership to create and nurture a learning culture rather than one of blame.
 

Are you kind at work?

We all like to think of ourselves as kind, but let's face it, most of us are sometimes guilty of being curt or impolite. 
 

If you'd like to make the workplace a kinder place, start by trying to implement some of these ideas into your daily work. You'll be surprised by the domino effect that kindness can have. 
 

Next steps

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