I am working on the design of the second week of the Quiet Leadership journey, which considers ‘kindness’. I have written about kindness quite frequently before, but this is my first attempt to consider it in a deliberately developmental way: to consider the frame or lens through which we may be mindful our our impact, and deliberate in our action.
My initial thoughts are unstructured: perhaps ‘kindness’ is the friction we exert upon the system. If we are kind, we generate less friction? Perhaps ‘kindness’ is about intent, although that leaves us with the challenge that people who act unfairly may believe they are being kind. Or perhaps ‘kindness’ is a judgement rather than an intent: this is a question of who validates kindness, and how? It’s about whether kindness is the intent of action, or the result of it: could you be judged to be kind even if you had not intended to be?
So questions may be:
- Is kindness the friction we exert upon the system?
- Is kindness about intent or impact?
- How is kindness validated? And by whom?
- Can you be accidentally kind?
- How are you kind?
- Are you kind equally, or does kindness track closeness?
- Does kindness make connections or strengthen them?