Why is a culture of kindness crucial for business success?

Having been with ITG for over 11 years, our Chief People Officer, Lisa Elrod, tells us why a culture of kindness is an essential element of a successful business model.

We’ve all known people, often in leadership positions, who mistake kindness for weakness. The idea of ‘ruling with an iron fist’ to get the best out of your teams used to be far more prevalent than it is now (thankfully!) – although you’ll still find it in certain businesses.

Overall though, there’s far greater recognition that a culture of kindness and empathy is not just essential for employee wellbeing, but will yield better business results. It’s something we’ve focused on heavily at ITG, and it’s not always an easy task, especially as we’ve grown from seven people around a table in Birmingham to offices across the globe, from Chicago to Amsterdam and Auckland!

It’s only possible if you make it a priority, reinforce it at every opportunity, and enshrine it in your policies and initiatives. So why should a culture of kindness sit at the heart of your business model?

Kindness and the virtuous cycle

I’ve borrowed the phrase ‘virtuous cycle’ from our CEO, Andrew, who mentioned it in our Inspired Thinking videocast. It’s something we kept returning to – that kindness begets kindness. I’m also a big believer that kindness in your personal life will inform the way you conduct yourself at work, and vice versa.

Of course, this all needs to be set in motion by your leaders. Their kind actions will ultimately cascade down to their teams, who will pass it onto their teams, and so on. This means that leaders need to be visible and proactive in setting the standards that everyone else follows.

In our videocast, Andrew brought up an African proverb which says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This idea of business as a journey is really interesting to me. We’re certainly on one at ITG, and it takes a lot of twists and turns that you wouldn’t necessarily have anticipated. But in the end, by embracing and leading a culture of kindness, you’ll go further and take more people with you along the way.

Attracting and keeping the best talent

Stemming from the above, retention is an increasingly important measure of business success, essentially showing how much people want to be a part of what you’re doing! The average UK attrition rate (the rate at which people leave their jobs) is around 16.8%, according to UK Money. For context, ITG’s attrition rate is at 13% for the last 12 months, and 8% in the last six months.

It goes without saying that every business wants the best and brightest working for them. Building a great reputation to attract that talent takes a lot of time and effort, and once they’re in, you need the culture of kindness (amongst other factors) that keeps them there.

But remember, a bad reputation can be made very quickly these days! Social media platforms and online reviews mean bad business practices can be flagged in a matter of seconds, and seen by the world. Applicants know everything they need to know about you before the interview stage!

As I touched on with Andrew, a supportive culture is in thoughts and actions, but also in the practical resources and support systems you put in place. At ITG, we’ve got an award-winning Wellbeing programme led by the brilliant Sarah Stead, with 40+ Wellbeing Champions across our business.

Our monthly Ace Awards are also a great way to highlight people around the company who are going the extra mile to be kind, and we encourage a paid Volunteer Day each year for individuals to support an organisation of their choice without having to use their annual leave.

On top of that, I’m a firm believer that mentoring is essential to reinforce kindness. It makes mentees feel valued, while offering crucial skill development, supporting possibly underrepresented groups, increasing engagement and developing the next leaders of your business!

Making tough decisions from a position of kindness

I’m aware that it’s easy to talk about kindness, much less so to live it. And there are times where kindness doesn’t seem like a valid or realistic option, such as when you are letting someone go from your business.

Kindness is honesty in this situation. In my experience, if someone is underperforming, they tend to know it. Often those conversations can come as a relief to the person in question, if you handle them in the right way – which means not attributing blame or being overtly critical. It’s rare that someone comes to work not looking to do a good job.

More often than not, it’s just that their skillset isn’t quite right for the job. There may even be a way to keep them in the business, but in a role better suited to their abilities.

That situation has an obvious, if not always easy, right answer. But leaders are often faced with impossible decisions where there is no right answer. In these situations, you need a solid set of values behind you, and the confidence to make a decision that negatively impacts the least amount of people. Getting good at making bad decisions is something that Andrew speaks about in this editorial.

Intent is key in these important decisions. You might not get everything right 100% of the time (in fact, none of us do!), but if you can show that you’re coming from a place of empathy, from a culture of kindness, then you will get more leeway from your employees.

Watch our kindness videocast

In 2024 and beyond, there’s absolutely no excuse for not leading with kindness. It’s good business sense, but even more importantly, it’s the right thing to do as a human.

As you can hopefully tell, kindness is something I’m hugely passionate about, and as Chief People Officer, I have to be! Looking after ourselves and each other is an integral part of ITG’s DNA, and being ‘Stronger Together’ is one of our core values that guide us as a business.

I loved discussing kindness with Andrew in our first Inspired Thinking videocast, and you can click here to watch it now.