Think of the qualities you have found in leaders who have had the greatest personal impact in your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that words like courageous, decisive, and visionary are somewhere on your list.<\/strong><\/p>\n But whenever I\u2019ve asked that question, it\u2019s been rare that the word \u201ckind\u201d hasn\u2019t also shown up.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, how do effective leaders develop this quality? Put another way, what is true about these leaders that might be missing from everyone else?<\/p>\n In my experience, I have discovered three essential practices that must be in place.<\/strong><\/p>\n John Maxwell has shared that, early in his leadership, he made about a dozen critical life decisions that would mark his path throughout his life. The rest of his life, he would only have to manage those decisions made early on.<\/p>\n Kind leaders take this approach.<\/p>\n They decide early on that, presented with the opportunity to share an encouraging word, provide a helping hand, or coach someone needing assistance, they would automatically step up. There is no need to revisit that decision each time such an opportunity presents itself; the decision has already been made.<\/p>\n Many years ago I found myself racing across town in order to make an appointment. I had allowed myself far too little time between meetings.<\/p>\n Along the way I came across a woman whose car was stalled with some sort of mechanical problem. As much as I genuinely wanted to stop and help, I simply had no time.<\/p>\n Then and there I made a vow to avoid scheduling kindness out of my day.<\/p>\n Kindness needs margin.<\/p>\n At a funeral, many people will say to the grief-stricken widow, \u201cIf there\u2019s anything I can do, please call me.\u201d<\/p>\n But kind leaders are different.<\/p>\n These are the ones who simply show up at her house, unannounced, with their lawnmower and take care of the yard.<\/p>\n Remember, kindness is not weakness. It takes enormous strength and discipline to develop this quality.<\/p>\n So strive to be a kind leader.<\/p>\n Because few other qualities could leave so profound an impact on someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In leadership, kindness is not weakness. Rather, to be effective, a leader must develop\u00a0an authentic sense of empathy that can help forge the deepest of connections. Kindness is action-oriented, and is an essential component to influencing lasting impact. Think of the qualities you have found in leaders who have had the greatest personal impact in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1015,769,738,478,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-character","category-culture-2","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6347,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6346\/revisions\/6347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Kind leaders are intentional<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Kind leaders create margin<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. Kind leaders take initiative<\/strong><\/h2>\n