Three things in human life are important.
The first is to be kind.     
       The second is to be kind. 
                                   The third is to be kind. — Henry James

How have you shown kindness to someone today? How has someone else been kind to you?

With the increased acknowledgment that bullying behavior is a widespread epidemic in workplaces and schools, the need to reclaim our kindness roots is imperative.While maneuvering through life every day, there are ways to make the days go smoothly for you and have a positive effect on other people.  It’s a way of reaching out to people, more often than not, that doesn’t require the use of money.  What is it?  It is kindness.

What does it cost a person to smile at another person?  To open a door?  To give a little of your time?  To allow them the right of way?  To treat them with dignity and respect?  To help remove snow for a person that needs transportation? It requires little effort, and can bring great results to our world.

Kindness is a personal quality that enables an individual to be sensitive to the needs of others and to take personal action to meet those needs. It is more than
being nice and agreeable. It’s a quality of one’s being, not just a matter of a person’s behavior. Kindness is a virtue. Virtues are the actions by which we gain and
keep our values. Kindness is not a duty, it is an expression of personal virtue that flows from and is rooted in love, which is at the heart of all virtues. Kindness
begins in the heart. I believe that kindness is one of the most important virtues because it is an important basis within everyday life. I believe it is an essential moral
that every person must develop.

I am deeply moved by the words of Mother Teresa, who said: “Be kind to everyone and start with the person standing next to you.” The impact we can have on the world we share, if we choose to be kind in every circumstance or even in an occasional situation, simply can’t be overestimated. The shift in how life would feel to everyone is truly beyond description. This may seem far-fetched, but if we remember the butterfly effect from chaos theory, the impact I’m talking about will be obvious. Anything that happens in one place is felt every place in due time. Anything. Everything.

Being a kind  as a leader doesn’t mean being a weak leader. Organisations should no longer pigeon hole the bold and assertive “Fiery Red”s into leadership roles or label the “Mellow Yellows” by their softer skills and people focus. The world has moved on. Leaders – good leaders – are very capable of making good and strong business decisions, even tough decisions, with kindness.

Satya Nadella recently showed that he could put principles first while navigating employee unrest. Take Mary Barra, CEO at General Motors, as an example. As we explored in a recent post, Barra is considered one of the most powerful women in the world, having successfully driven GE forward in the last five years. She’s achieved all this by exuding a quiet, humble, and kind leadership style.

Outside of the business world, there are people like Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, who exudes warmth, kindness, and compassion, and is steadily becoming one of the most iconic and respected leaders of our time.

Kindness is priceless, costing nothing to give. Its blessings can quickly spread. Kindness in and given by a person can make a difference in a family, in a
neighborhood, in an office or business, in a town, and in the world. Imagine what our nation and our world would be like if there were more actions or models of
kindness active in our communities rather than actions or models of greed, hate, material success, and personal fame. Kindness begins in the heart. Kindness
softens hearts, lifts spirits, and molds relationships. The value of our lives is best measured not by the material possessions we’ve acquired, but by the hearts we’ve
touched because who we are is far more important than what we have. Everything we do affects not only our own life, but touches other lives, too. Kindness not
only benefits receivers of the kind act, but also the giver. Kind acts release the neurotransmitters in our brains responsible for feelings of contentment and
relaxation. Contentment and relaxation bring about peace.

Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom. Choose to be kind over being right and you’ll be right every time because kindness is a sign of STRENGTH