A lot of bruised feelings remain after last year’s election season. But instead of perpetuating the rancor, the world is ready for more kindness in the coming year. It’s time to rekindle your dormant kernel of kindness and vow to bring it with you each day when you enter your workplace.
Holding political grudges does you no good, particularly when you must work alongside your “opponents.” You end up trying to avoid people on your team, but in the process, you lose access to their special expertise that can make your projects progress more smoothly.
What’s more, when you put kindness at the forefront of all your workplace interactions, you neutralize the viciousness and become someone that other people prefer to work with.
You may even notice that your requests are addressed more quickly than your bad-tempered counterparts and that you become the person given the choice assignments. Kindness is like a magnet that attracts others to you.
How to Cultivate Kindness at Work
Employ these approaches to help you keep your vow to be kind at work throughout these fractious times:
1. Consider Another’s Perspective
Understand that you bring all your life experiences into play when you regard any situation — and, likewise, so do others. For example, experiencing your parents’ divorce will color your impression of relationships in a way that someone from a loving, intact family can’t conceive.
Attempt to understand how others formed their thought process and feelings. Try to appreciate what drives them to form the opinions and make the choices that they do.
2. Be the Model of Composure
When you embrace kindness as a central tenet, you are able to remain calm even while others’ rage swirls around you. Modeling self-control sets a tone that can cause others to decrease their fury and even adopt a more civil tone.
Think of it as though you are holding an umbrella over your head that deflects the taunts or caustic remarks and keeps you apart from the seething storm.
3. Find Ways to Befriend Your Enemies
While the saying “kill them with kindness” may seem an adverse portrayal of your purpose, it has some merit. For instance, if you refuse to take the bait when your most antagonistic colleague taunts you and instead offer to take some of their workload when they’re overwhelmed, they won’t be able to continue parading their hostility.
4. Perform Random Acts of Kindness
Look for opportunities to show kindness around your workplace — even to those whose values land on the opposite end of the continuum from yours.
- Bring in an extra latte for a frazzled coworker.
- Hold the door for your workmate with an arm full of folders.
- Send a funny meme to someone who seems a bit down.
- Comment on the sweetness of the family photo on your stern colleague’s desk.
Make a game of finding ways to boost others’ morale.
5. Stand in Your Power – Kindly
Don’t equate kindness with being a pushover. You can show compassion without negating your authority or your impact. When it’s necessary to assert yourself or disagree, you can do so in a way that doesn’t dismiss or denigrate your coworker.
Lead with, “I hear what you’re saying and I can see that you feel strongly about it. Let me just throw out another perspective.” When you temper your persuasion with cool-headedness, people are more likely to listen to and be accepting of your alternative position.
6. Watch Your Email Tone
It’s so easy to write a curt email. But one gruff email begets a harsh reply, and before you know it, you and your colleagues are behaving like circus flame throwers. To avoid sparks:
- Never send an email when you’re angry. Wait until you’ve calmed down before you craft your reply.
- Remember that cordiality is the first thing to go, and once gone, it’s hard to get back.
- Not all issues can be resolved via email. Sometimes, you may need a Zoom meeting or even an in-person discussion.
- Email is a legal document. Never commit anything to email that you wouldn’t want HR to read.
- Triple-check your emails for spelling, punctuation, and tone.
7. Be Kind to Yourself
Striving to always go high when others go low can become mentally draining. Pride in your ability to turn the other cheek will only go so far before you start to despair that the world has just turned angry.
When you feel the fatigue of facing others’ vitriol mounting, indulge in self-care to renew your kindness vow.
- Meet up with friends for a favorite activity.
- Rejoin your favorite yoga studio.
- Go to a concert and lose yourself in the music.
- Do anything that helps you escape from the depths of despair in the face of rampant aggression and hostility. Consider kindness to yourself a well-earned indulgence, not an extravagance.
The Lasting Impact of Workplace Kindness
Once you vow to be more kind, you’ll find that it actually requires little effort to make a big impact. Be an example to those around you that we’re all better off leading with kindness rather than shutting out others because we don’t share the same political viewpoints.
As Plato once said, “Be kind because we are all fighting our own battles.”
