In this episode of our mini-series “Coaching with Costas”, we discuss whether one can actually be “too kind to lead”.

Below are the main highlights:

• At the root of effective leadership is kindness. Kind leadership is critically important, particularly today.

• Leadership is about being inclusive and understanding others’ perspectives and their personal growth agenda, ultimately empowering them to be as successful as they can be.

• You can be kind and purposeful, transparent, consistent and people centric. Kindness does mean to allow people to underperform and not address difficult topics. If you allow underperformance and don’t help people improve, that is in fact unkind.

• John Maxwell suggests a framework where there are different layers of leadership. According to the top layer (5th) of leadership, people follow you because of who you are and what you stand for.