I don’t know about you, but when I got my degree in Construction Management, or when I took my leadership courses along in my career, or when I was out working on the construction site – no one EVER brought up importance of being kind (I would suggest almost the opposite in many cases).

Yes, my parents did drill into me to be kind.  Well, sort of.  They sternly growled “be kind otherwise it will be like a boomerang, and you’ll get what’s coming back at you”.  Or something along those lines.

In recent years as I learn more about wellbeing and how to flourish in life, learn about how best to create safer workplace cultures, and how to combat psychosocial hazards – the importance of kindness comes up a lot in the research.

Let me first be clear that I’m talking about kindness – NOT being nice.  What’s the difference you might ask?  Being nice is placating someone.  Not being authentic.  Just saying what they want to hear.  Kind on the other hand is being authentic.  It’s helping someone else (or yourself!). Kindness is defined by action – doing something!

If we show genuine kindness (and it MUST be authentic and genuine otherwise our internal systems know it’s not and doesn’t have the same impact) it has a positive impact on the person showing kindness, the person receiving kindness, as well as anyone who sees the act of kindness.  Far out!  All this upside benefit and with little (or large effort) and for free.  Hard to beat that.

The mechanics behind that is our amazing bodies release hormone of oxytocin. Oxytocin helps humans connect with others and creates feelings of wellbeing.  Additionally, random acts of kindness releases dopamine and serotonin, which gives us feeling of euphoria or feeling good.  These are neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain) that play a huge role in helping us regulate our mood.

That is all well and said but how about at work?  A recent Forbes article talks about fostering a culture of kindness is “more critical than ever”. Kindness helps build upon our social connection with others, it helps build trust, it boosts morale and helps to build a culture where people thrive.  When we talk about creating a psychologically safe space to work in – a kind culture would help!

Do you work on a construction site where people don’t see kindness as essential?  One young year 3 apprentice I was talking to about kindness said that kindness to him was not getting called a f*cking c*nt every day.  Unfortunately, he said that has been the norm on most of the sites he’s worked on so far. Hmmm, I can guess what the culture on those sites has been like! Do you think people show up feeling good and excited about their day?  I’m thinking not.

Let’s be honest – that’s a pretty low bar to raise.  I hope that everyone who reads this article thinks a little bit harder about how they can start to change that kind of behaviour and add a bit of kindness into their workplace.

What does kindness in the workplace look like? This could be giving helpful authentic feedback (yes, kind is not always nice).  You could ask a colleague if they need any help.  You could check in on a mate who doesn’t seem to be their normal self as they came back from the holidays.  That’s all it takes folks!  That makes us as a collective feel better and builds trust.  By us feeling better makes us show up better which makes us more productive.  Being kind is a no brainer, isn’t it?

Construction is known to be a stressful industry to work in due to the long hours, tight deadlines and low margins amongst other things.  This causes anxiety amongst us mere mortals – ah to be human!  When anxiety is high, kindness is a necessity.

The research shows that kindness has positive outcomes for businesses.  How, might you ask? If leaders are kind to employees – it helps keep retention, absenteeism low.

It can help create a healthy and thriving culture. It can increase employee’s engagement and presenteeism.

Further, as noted in a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article things like self-care, acknowledging people, and giving helpful feedback are some of the ways to be kind.

Self-Care:  Kindness starts with each of us and looking after ourselves with self-care. We know that if our own wellbeing suffers then that impacts our performance.  So, it’s friggin’ important to look after our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

Acknowledge people: We foster a sense of care and empathy when we recognise people and what they are doing.  Giving team members an authentic “well done mate” acknowledgement lets them know you appreciate them and their work.  But don’t say it if you don’t mean it!  Particularly the young apprentices – they need to get some positive feedback.  This also combats the psychosocial hazard “inadequate reward and recognition”.  Win win!

Giving feedback: Kind feedback means providing information for the betterment of the person receiving it as well as the overall success of the project.  This is helping people better understand their role and job clarity.  Again, this is on the psychosocial hazards list to another win win!

Whilst kindness is a huge asset it’s challenging to quantify.  It is key to building trust amongst the team.  By creating a culture that fosters kindness it helps builds innovation and creativity as people feel secure enough to share their ideas.

It’s really a no-brainer.  Figure out how create a kind culture starting with yourself.  You won’t be disappointed in the results.

 

By Laurice Temple, Founder and Managing Director of Ripple Affect Institute

 

 

 

References

Forbes Article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2024/11/26/why-kindness-in-the-workplace-is-important/

 

Science of Kindness: Cedars Sinai

 

https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/science-of-kindness.html#:~:text=Most%20research%20on%20the%20science,bonds%20and%20trusting%20other%20people.

 

Why Kindness at work pays off

https://hbr.org/2023/07/why-kindness-at-work-pays-off

https://hbr.org/2023/07/why-kindness-at-work-pays-off