Sandra Moore is an explorer on the Women Leading in Renewable Energy expedition.
“You are way too nice to be a Dean and likely won’t last long in this role” a faculty member shared with me weeks after I started as an Academic Dean for a community college in 2018 (spoiler alert – I lasted a few years in the role). That same week, a colleague suggested I patrol the office spaces to show my authority. I did not see myself as either a nice or authoritative leader and sharing those experiences with another colleague a few weeks later I realized I was a “kind” leader as they told me there is a significant difference between being “nice” and being “kind” as a leader.
Throughout my twenty-year career leading teams in Canada and internationally I have often been labelled as being “nice” or “kind” with a suggestion that being “kind” is a weakness and not a trait “strong” leaders have. In the last few years I have embraced being a “kind” leader because I value kindness, clarity, and equity in the workplace but also for the same reason that Jeff Leblanc states in a 2025 article on Gen Z and quiet quitting – people are done tolerating bad (“strong”) leadership1. He states that often Gen Z employees (and I would add many from Gen X, Millennials, and even Baby Boomers) are quiet quitting as a rational response to not tolerating workplaces that lack structure, clarity, and fairness. He states that companies that do not evolve from outdated leadership models will lose an entire generation of talent to those companies with leaders who prioritize kindness, fairness, and structure.
Though the adjectives “nice” and “kind” are often synonymous; in referencing leadership I define them very differently. “Nice” leaders aim to be agreeable, avoid conflict, do not set clear expectations, and try not to rock the boat. It is impossible to always be nice as a leader as leaders often need to resolve conflicts, set clear boundaries, conduct performance management, and terminate employees. The polar opposite of a “nice” leader is what many refer to as a “strong” leader, one who pushes their own ideas, humiliates or demeans others, micromanages employees, sets unrealistic expectations, and is feared by employees. Between these two extremes are kind leaders.
Kind leaders are good coaches and advocates, highly collaborative, set clear and realistic expectations, and are comfortable rocking the boat to get to the progress or innovation needed, as long as it is done in a civil way. I describe kind leaders as those who are empathetic, inclusive, know how to empower others, and provide clear and consistent expectations. They recognize that as a leader they are not expected to have all the answers but rather are expected to be a coach to empower and help remove barriers for the members of their teams to find the answers. Kind leaders know that clarity is important for people to understand their roles, what is expected of them in their role, what happens if they are not able to fulfil the expectations of their role, and how they are expected to work with other employees, stakeholders, etc… to get to the best possible solutions.
Additionally, kind leaders focus on the individual and collaborative well-being of employees and ensuring psychological safety in the workplace. Psychological safety is a term developed by Dr. Amy Edmondson that is “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking”2. Dr. Edmondson believes that in our knowledge-intensive world “achieving high performance requires having the confidence to take risks” and if employees do not trust and feel comfortable with each other, individual and organizational performance can be impacted. She states that psychological safety is not about creating environments that promote agreeing with each other for the sake of being nice and avoiding conflict, but rather creating environments where people feel comfortable to be candid, make suggestions, express concerns, and take risks.
Psychological safety takes off the brakes that keep people from achieving what’s possible. But it’s not the fuel that powers the car. In any challenging industry setting, leaders have two vital tasks. One, they must build psychological safety to spur learning and avoid preventable failures; two, they must set high standards and inspire and enable people to reach them. In other words, today’s leaders must motivate people to do their very best work by inspiring them, coaching them, providing feedback, and making excellence a rewarding experience.
I recognize that context matters and that there are many situations where “kind” leaders may need to be “nice” or “strong” leaders. As noted earlier, many employees today are less accepting of leaders who dominantly use leadership models that are either very authoritative (strong) or overly lenient (nice). Employees generally prefer workplaces where they feel psychologically safe, and leaders focused on the middle ground between “nice” and “strong” who lead with a focus on kindness aim to create such environments.
As someone who strives to be a kind leader, Women Emerging’s tagline “if that’s leading, I’m in” resonated with me and motivated me to join the seven-month Women in Renewable Energy virtual expedition. The women in this expedition believe that leading in the 21st century requires new models of leadership and challenging terms like “kindness” that have traditionally been seen as weaknesses for leaders. I proudly identify as a “kind” leader and I believe that leaders who focus on kindness can create workplaces where employees feel valued, empowered, inspired, and motivated to do their best work. As the era of enduring outdated leadership models ends, embracing kindness will be the key to attracting and retaining highly motivated and engaged employees to build successful, innovative, and sustainable organizations. Embracing kindness also broadens the space for leaders to lead in ways that are authentic to them, the contexts they operate in, and the elements that influence their leadership. Most importantly though, everyone deserves a kind workplace where they feel safe, where they feel they belong, where expectations are clear, and where they feel that they matter.
About the author:
This blog was written by Sandra Moore. Sandra is a kind and collaborative leader with diverse senior leadership experience across higher education, government, and non-profit organizations. Her work has focused on building and rebuilding teams, supporting entrepreneurs, sustainable energy workforce development, clean tech adoption and innovation, and sustainable community development for the transition to a low carbon world.
[1] Leblanc, Jeff. (2025). Gen Z isn’t quiet quitting. They’re rejecting outdated leadership. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/91281732/gen-z-isnt-quiet-quitting-theyre-rejecting-outdated-leadership[1] Edmondson, Amy C. (2025). Psychological Safety. https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety/
