Teach17

Kindness can sometimes be dismissed as a soft extra in school leadership: pleasant to have, but less important than standards, results, behaviour or accountability. In reality, kindness is one of the foundations on which effective leadership is built.

Kind leadership does not mean avoiding difficult decisions, lowering expectations or allowing poor performance to continue. It means treating people with dignity, listening carefully, communicating honestly and remembering that every policy affects real human beings.

At a time when 76% of teachers and education staff report feeling stressed, the way leaders make people feel matters enormously. Research links supportive leadership, positive school cultures and professional trust with better staff wellbeing, stronger retention and healthier working relationships.

1. Kindness builds trust

Staff are more likely to trust leaders who are honest, fair and genuinely interested in their wellbeing. Trust is built through everyday interactions: keeping promises, listening without immediately becoming defensive and treating people consistently.

When staff trust their leaders, they are more willing to raise concerns, suggest improvements and admit when they need help. Research into school cultures has found links between trust, professional growth and stronger organisational performance.

2. Kindness creates psychological safety

Schools improve when people feel safe enough to say, “I made a mistake,” “I do not understand,” or “I think there may be a better way.”

A harsh or blame-driven culture encourages people to hide problems. A kind culture brings problems into the open, where they can be discussed and solved. This does not remove accountability. It makes honest accountability possible.

3. Kindness helps schools retain good teachers

Teachers do not usually leave a school because of one difficult lesson or a single demanding week. They are more likely to leave when they feel persistently unsupported, mistrusted or undervalued.

Education Support reports that one in four education staff have actively considered leaving because of pressures on their mental health and wellbeing. Leaders cannot remove every pressure from teaching, but kindness can make staff feel that they are facing those pressures with the school rather than against it.

4. Kindness makes difficult conversations more effective

Educational leaders regularly have to address missed deadlines, weak teaching, poor conduct, parental complaints or disappointing results.

These conversations should be clear, but they do not need to be humiliating. People are more likely to reflect and improve when feedback is specific, private and focused on the behaviour rather than attacking the person.

Kindness allows a leader to say something difficult without being unnecessarily hurtful.

5. Kindness strengthens professional relationships

Schools depend on relationships. Teachers work with support staff, technicians, office teams, governors, parents, pupils and external professionals every day.

Small acts of kindness make these relationships stronger: thanking someone properly, noticing when a colleague is struggling, replying respectfully and acknowledging work that often goes unseen.

A school runs more smoothly when people feel that their contribution is recognised.

6. Kindness encourages staff to ask for help early

In an unkind culture, asking for support may be interpreted as weakness or incompetence. Staff therefore remain silent until a manageable problem becomes a serious one.

Kind leaders make it normal to ask for guidance. They check in with new teachers, support colleagues facing difficult classes and make help available before someone reaches breaking point.

Early support is usually more effective than crisis management.

7. Kindness improves staff wellbeing

Kindness cannot compensate for excessive workload, poor systems or inadequate staffing. Leaders must address structural problems rather than relying on biscuits, thank-you cards or wellbeing slogans.

However, respectful communication, sensible expectations, manageable deadlines and genuine concern can reduce unnecessary stress. The Department for Education’s Staff Wellbeing Charter asks schools to protect, promote and enhance the wellbeing of everyone working in education.

8. Kindness supports better teaching

Teachers are more likely to teach well when they have the emotional and professional capacity to plan carefully, respond patiently and build positive relationships with pupils.

A systematic review found that teacher wellbeing is associated with teacher retention, teacher–pupil relationships and pupil outcomes, although the researchers caution that not every relationship can be assumed to be directly causal. Supporting staff is therefore not separate from improving education; it is part of it.

9. Kindness makes high expectations sustainable

Kindness and high standards are not opposites. The strongest leaders often combine both.

They expect staff and pupils to do their best, but they also recognise that improvement takes time, mistakes happen and people sometimes need additional support. Expectations are more sustainable when people understand them, believe they are fair and feel supported in meeting them.

Fear may produce short-term compliance. Kindness is more likely to produce lasting commitment.

10. Kindness gives staff a genuine voice

Listening is one of the most important forms of leadership kindness.

Staff should not be consulted about every minor decision, but they should have meaningful opportunities to contribute to decisions that affect their workload, classrooms and professional lives.

OECD evidence has examined the relationship between teacher involvement in decision-making, professional autonomy, wellbeing and job satisfaction. Listening to staff also helps leaders identify practical problems that may not be visible from their offices.

11. Kindness makes change easier to manage

Schools constantly introduce new curricula, behaviour systems, assessment policies, technologies and accountability procedures.

Even sensible changes can create anxiety and additional workload. Kind leaders explain why a change is necessary, listen to concerns, provide sufficient training and avoid introducing everything at once.

People are more likely to support change when they feel informed, involved and respected.

12. Kindness promotes inclusion

Inclusive leadership requires more than treating everyone identically. Different people may need different forms of support.

A kind leader considers the experiences of disabled staff, early-career teachers, part-time colleagues, support staff, carers and people from under-represented backgrounds. They remain curious rather than assuming that everyone experiences the workplace in the same way.

Kindness helps leaders notice barriers that policies and procedures can sometimes overlook.

13. Kindness strengthens relationships with pupils

Pupils watch how adults treat one another. They notice whether leaders greet staff warmly, listen to concerns and respond calmly when something goes wrong.

A leadership team that demonstrates kindness makes it easier for teachers to build respectful classroom cultures. Pupils learn that authority can be calm, fair and compassionate rather than aggressive or intimidating.

This is especially important for pupils whose previous experiences of authority may not have been positive.

14. Kindness supports new and inexperienced staff

New teachers are expected to learn an enormous amount while also managing classrooms, planning lessons and adjusting to the emotional demands of the profession.

Kind leaders remember what it felt like to be inexperienced. They provide clear guidance, protect appropriate development time and avoid treating every early mistake as evidence that someone is unsuitable for teaching.

Support at the beginning of a career can shape whether a teacher remains in education.

15. Kindness reduces fear-based leadership

Fear can make a school appear calm while problems remain hidden underneath.

Staff may stop questioning weak decisions, avoid reporting behaviour incidents or become reluctant to try new approaches. Meetings become quiet, but not because everyone agrees.

Kind leadership replaces fear with professional respect. It allows disagreement without disloyalty and challenge without humiliation.

16. Kindness spreads through the organisation

Leadership behaviour rarely remains confined to the senior leadership team. Middle leaders observe it and often repeat it. Teachers then carry the same tone into classrooms and conversations with pupils.

If leaders communicate through blame and public criticism, this can spread through the school. If they model patience, fairness and appreciation, those behaviours can spread too.

School culture is created not only through policies but through thousands of small interactions.

17. Kindness reminds everyone what education is for

Education is ultimately a human profession. Schools are not factories, pupils are not data points and staff are not replaceable units of labour.

Results, attendance, behaviour and accountability all matter, but they should serve the development of people rather than overshadow it.

Kind educational leadership keeps dignity at the centre of decision-making. It asks not only, “Will this improve performance?” but also, “Is this reasonable, fair and humane?”

Kindness is not weak leadership. It is disciplined, courageous and thoughtful leadership. It allows leaders to maintain high expectations while ensuring that the people around them still feel valued, supported and able to grow.