It’s Monday morning! Time to start the week The Kind Leader Way!
This week’s focus: Noticing when you’re feeling fearful. Why is noticing when you are feeling fearful this week’s focus? Because fear and kindness don’t go together. Take a moment to think about situations you’ve felt fear in. Maybe you’ve made an error on a customer’s account, or missed a deadline your boss gave you. Maybe the quarterly results aren’t what they are supposed to be. Maybe your stomach felt like it was in knots, like your heart was beating too fast, or you just felt an all-over, uneasy stressful feeling. Every person ‘feels fear’ in a different way. Chances are, if you were feeling fearful, it was because you were afraid of what might happen to you: would you be yelled at? Belittled? Fired? In each case, the unkind reactions and actions you are worrying about leads to the feeling of fear. Now think about a situation in which you know, no matter what happens, you’re going to be responded to kindly. That even if you make a mistake, don’t act perfectly, you don’t have to worry about how you’ll be treated. In those situations, we don’t feel fear. Fear and kindness just don’t go together.
So this week, here’s what I’d like you to do:
1. When you’re wearing your ‘Follower Hat’:
Pay attention to what situations make you feel fearful, and ask yourself why? What unkind words or acts do you worry are going to happen?
2. When you are wearing your ‘Leader Hat:’
Notice when we those you are leading are displaying fearful reactions. Check your actions, tone of voice and thoughts for what you could be doing that is causing them fear.
No one wants to live and work in fear. That’s why Kind Leadership…and leading with kindness, to eliminate fear, are so important.
When you feel or see fear, chances are unkindness, and unkind leadership is not too far away! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you see and experience the relationship between fear, kindness and leadership?
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