The act of kindness - an essential trait of leadership

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I generally listen to stories - about random acts of kindness. It lasts only that much longer though. It fails to "stick". Suddenly when someone notable or powerful speaks, your ears perk up and you take to their advice and give full attention. It so happened I was privileged enough to sit in an auditorium brimming with co-workers listening to Colin Powell speak. Now I expected a more military-government-defense sort of serious talk.

Now imagine my surprise when he spoke a lot more about kindness than what would be expected from a personality and leader like him. He came across as the most down to earth, ordinary and an honest, straightforward guy and yet he arrested my attention!

Among several great anecdotes he narrated, one stuck with me till date and will do forever. I started reading his book It Worked For Me : In Life and Leadership today and I was pleased to see the same anecdote in one of the chapters. 

Bottomline being kindness is essential for rock solid leadership.
Read why in this excerpt from the book - 

When I was Secretary of State, I slipped away one day from my beautiful office suite and vigilant security guards and snuck down to the garage. The garage is run by contract employees, most of them immigrants and minorities making only a few dollars above minimum wage.

The garage is too small for all the employees' cars. The challenge every morning is to pack them all. The attendants' system is to stack cars one behind the other, so densely packed that there's no room to maneuver. Since number three can't get out until number one and two have left, the evening rush hour is chaos if the lead cars don't exit the garage on time. Inevitably a lot of impatient people have to stand around waiting their turn.

The attendants had never seen a Secretary wandering around the garage before; they though I was lost. (That may be true by then, but I'd never admit it.) They asked if I needed help getting back "home".

"No", I answered. "I just want to look around and chat with you."

They were surprised, but pleased. I asked about the job, where they were from, were there problems with carbon monoxide, and similar small talk. They assured me everything was fine, and we all relaxed and chatted away.

After a while I asked a question that puzzled me: "When the cars come in every morning, how do you decide who ends up first to get out and who ends up second and third?"

They gave each other knowing looks and little smiles. "Mr. Secretary", one of them said, "it kinda goes like this. When you drive in, if you lower the window, look out, smile and you know our name, or you say 'Good morning, how are you?' or something like that you are number one to get out. But if you look just straight ahead and don't show you even see us or that we are doing something for you, well, you are likely to be one of the last to get out."

I thanked them, smiled, and made my way back to where I had abandoned my now distraught bodyguard. 

At my next staff meeting, I shared this story with my senior leaders. "You can never err by treating everyone in the building with respect, thoughtfulness and a kind word," I told them. "Every one of our employees is an essential employee. Every one of them wants to be viewed that way. And if you treat them that way, they will view you that way. They will not let you down or let you fail. They will accomplish whatever you have put in front of them."