Can kindness actually boost team performance?
When we think about high-performing teams, we often focus on traits like ambition, decisiveness, and resilience. Kindness rarely makes the list. It’s often seen as a “nice-to-have,” not something that actually moves the needle on outcomes. But new research challenges that assumption—and shows that kindness might be one of the most important qualities a team can have, especially when the task at hand is complex or uncertain.
A recent study,Kill Chaos with Kindness (Lim et al., 2023), combined behavioral simulations with real-world team data to explore how personality traits influence performance. Using a decade’s worth of data from nearly 600 teams and over 5,000 projects, the researchers uncovered a striking insight: teams made up of more agreeable individuals—those who are cooperative, empathetic, and respectful—performed significantly better in uncertain, ambiguous situations.
This finding is important because most modern work is trending toward uncertainty. From strategy development to product innovation and cross-functional problem-solving, today’s teams are navigating complexity that doesn’t come with a clear roadmap. In these contexts, interpersonal dynamics become a major performance factor. Teams need to share information openly, manage conflict constructively, and make decisions without having all the answers. Kindness, in this setting, isn’t a weakness—it’s a strength.
That psychological safety isn’t just a buzzword. It’s what allows teams to take risks, challenge assumptions, and work through disagreement without damaging trust. These are the exact conditions needed to solve open-ended, complex problems—and they’re powered by behaviors rooted in kindness.
That said, kindness isn’t always the primary driver of performance. In structured, rules-based environments, traits like discipline, precision, and conscientiousness are often more predictive of success. But when the path forward is unclear, and the team is responsible for figuring it out together, kindness becomes a real performance differentiator.
Why kindness works in uncertainty
What makes kindness so effective in uncertain contexts? According to the research, it helps teams reduce friction and maintain cohesion when cognitive load is already high. When you don’t know the right answer, you rely more on each other—not just for information, but for support, clarity, and shared direction. Teams with more agreeable members are better at creating that kind of alignment.
In practical terms, this often shows up in subtle but crucial ways: people giving each other space to speak, being more patient when things go wrong, assuming good intent, and offering support rather than blame. These behaviors don’t slow teams down—they speed them up by reducing the time spent managing interpersonal tension and rebuilding trust.
Kindness also improves feedback. Teams high in it are more likely to give feedback constructively, and to receive it without defensiveness. That means they adapt faster, learn quicker, and continuously improve—not because they avoid conflict, but because they manage it better.
Not soft, just strategic
Kindness doesn’t mean a lack of standards or avoiding hard conversations. It’s about how those conversations happen. Do people feel safe disagreeing? Are they more focused on the problem or on protecting their ego? Do they leave a meeting more aligned—or more divided?
These are the real markers of team effectiveness, especially when the work is collaborative and the outcomes aren’t guaranteed. That’s why organizations are beginning to treat these behavioral traits not just as part of “culture,” but as business-critical capabilities.
And while we often think of kindness as an individual trait, the research shows it works best at the team level. One person being cooperative helps, but when the overall environment is built on mutual respect, the impact multiplies. The team becomes more than the sum of its parts.
How to build kindness into teams
So, what can leaders do to foster this kind of team environment?
- Assess for deeper traits, not just surface skills.
When hiring or assembling teams, look beyond technical fit. Tools like the Deeper Signals Core Drivers diagnostic can help identify drivers like Considerate, Stable etc. that are crucial for high-trust collaboration. - Make psychological safety a standard, not an exception.
Prioritize team dynamics in the same way you would metrics or deadlines. Ask regularly: do people feel heard? Are they comfortable raising issues? Do they trust each other’s intent? - Model it yourself.
Leaders who show empathy, stay calm under stress, and engage others with respect set the tone. It creates permission for others to do the same. - Reframe kindness as performance fuel.
Stop treating interpersonal behaviors as “soft.” Start recognizing them as core to how teams solve problems, communicate under pressure, and get results.
Can kindness boost performance? The evidence says yes—especially when it matters most. It doesn’t replace ambition, intelligence, or focus. It creates the conditions where those things can actually work. And in a world where uncertainty is the norm, that makes kindness not just useful—but essential.
