Kindness means challenging people: Former Sportsgirl CEO Colleen Callander on leadership

Colleen Callander spent 13 combined years between Sportsgirl and Sussan as chief executive, and is one of Australia’s most well-known fashion retail leaders.

Her debut book, Leader by Design, recounts her journey and shares lessons she picked up along the way.

This exclusive SmartCompany Plus extract focuses on kindness as a driver of strong leadership. Crucially, kindness in this context means challenging your employees, and giving negative feedback to help them grow.

“It’s a common misconception that being a kind leader makes you a weak leader. I believe that being a kind leader requires courage and strength. Kind leaders are very capable of making good and strong business decisions — even tough decisions with kindness,” Callander writes.

“Kindness empowers others to lead with positivity, purpose and an open mind. This encourages new ideas, innovation and collaboration.

“If leaders show kindness, they accelerate trust and in turn create happier, more empowered employees who will be inspired to share and deliver on the organisation’s goals and vision.”

The below extract is taken from chapter six, ‘The Power of Kindness’, and includes four things that all kind leaders do within their business.

Source: supplied.

1. Kind leaders treat people like people

Kind leaders recognise that people are people, not machines.

Machines have serial numbers.

People have names.

During my years as CEO, I made a habit of walking through my office building most mornings to say hello to my team, always using their first name.

I remember a team member once saying to my assistant, ‘I can’t believe that the CEO remembers my name… I’m no-one.’ And my assistant replied, ‘Everyone is someone to Col.’

My door was always open and I valued every single person’s contribution. I often think back to my early days in retail when I worked as a sales assistant and senior management would visit our store. It would be a huge deal, with much preparation and excitement in anticipation of their visit.

During one of these visits, the senior management team arrived and not one of them spoke to me or any of the other team members — they only spoke to the store manager. I remember how that made me feel: small, undervalued and unappreciated.

I made myself a promise from that day forward that no-one would ever be invisible to me when I rose up the ranks. To this day, whenever I have visited a store, I have made sure I introduced myself to every single person and asked them their name.

2. Kind leaders set clear expectations

We have all heard the saying, ‘It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey’. Well, in my opinion, both are true.

We are all on a journey — whether that be in our relationships, careers or personal lives. We all encounter lessons along the road through hardship, discovery, heartache, failure, joy, success, celebration, difficulties and sometimes even danger.

The role of a leader is to support that journey, while at the same time communicating a clear destination.

People will never deliver on the leader’s expectations if those expectations are not clear in the first place. Clear expectations help set people up for success. In my experience, failure occurs as a result of unclear expectations far too often.

Watching people grow can be so rewarding, whether you are a leader at work, a parent or a coach. I believe every human has potential, and it is our job as leaders to create environments that allow people to shine — and this starts with providing clear expectations.

Clarity of goals and objectives is essential for success. It gives your team a path forward, helps them focus on what’s important, increases their effectiveness and helps them monitor their progress and continuously grow and improve.

3. Kind leaders give honest feedback

The ability to give and receive feedback is an extremely important leadership skill.

Giving honest feedback kindly is a fantastic gift — whether it’s negative or positive feedback. Positive feedback encourages people to keep going and strive to be even better. Negative or constructive feedback helps people grow by encouraging them to consider where and how they can improve.

People will only experience feedback as a gift when it is delivered well. Giving honest feedback poorly can destroy a person’s self- confidence and demotivate them.

When leaders are not honest with their people it’s generally because they don’t like confrontation, are uncomfortable with the situation, haven’t made their expectations clear, don’t know how to give feedback or don’t want to hurt the recipient’s feelings.

As a kind leader, you must tell people when they’re not meeting expectations and, more importantly, why. Remember: you need to have made your expectations clear first and foremost. These sorts of conversations can be tough, but can actually build trust if they are handled with honesty and kindness.

I have always lived by the saying, ‘Honesty is the best policy’. I truly believe this. Even after some of the most challenging conversations, people’s parting words have often been, ‘Thank you for being honest’. As a kind leader, I always stay true to myself and others.

To be a kind leader you have to be honest with yourself as well as being honest with others. Honesty starts with the person in the mirror.

4. Kind leaders encourage growth

Kind leaders are encouragers. They say the words people need to hear, not want to hear. They not only talk to your head, but also talk to your heart with the encouragement, feedback and inspiration you need to grow.

Kindness doesn’t mean always saying things are great and wonderful. Kindness also means challenging your people to be their best, reach their potential, push beyond their comfort zones and care enough to speak the hard truths.

Giving your people more responsibility is a great way to encourage growth. Share with them the attributes and qualities you see in them, and help them see how they can utilise these gifts for self-growth. This also expresses your faith in their ability and cultivates them as future leaders by making them more accountable.

I’ve always encouraged people to make decisions by saying, ‘You’ve got this… I trust in your ability’ or ‘You’re the expert in your field;

I’m backing you’ or even ‘You’ve given this great consideration; I know you’re going to make the right decision. I have complete faith in you.’

When you allow your people to make decisions, you are encouraging them to lead and feel empowered. Not only does this foster personal growth, but it also lets them know that you believe in them and gives them the opportunity to prove you right.

Always remember to praise and appreciate your people. A little bit of praise goes a long way and encourages people to keep going, keep stretching and keep striving. Let them know how much their great work matters to the organisation, and that they inspire others around them to do better and be better.

I believe in human potential and nothing makes me happier than watching people grow and thrive. Some people take little steps and others giant leaps, and that’s okay. Even the smallest step forward is a step in the right direction.

Most people want to do a little better tomorrow than they did today, and it is the leader’s role to support others’ hopes and dreams.

This is an extract from Leader by Design by Colleen Callander, published by Major Street Publishing, available now in all good bookstores and online at Booktopia.