How does it feel to have won the Institute’s Book of the Year award?
It is such an honour. I think a lot of people are feeling the need for more kindness in all areas of life. So as much as anything else, it feels like a win for ‘Team Kind’. When it was announced in the room, you could tell a lot of people were cheering the fact that kindness was being celebrated. I hope this award will amplify the idea that kindness can be a driving force for high performance and give kind leaders the confidence to lean into it even more.
What led you to write KIND?
When I was delivering a keynote to a room of investment bankers in Rome a few years ago, someone asked me how I ran my own business, Think Productive. I’d not really been asked this on stage before, so, for a moment, I was struggling for what was distinctive. Then it just spilled out of me: “Kindness is everything. When you’re kind, you win, it’s as simple as that.” It felt like it immediately divided the room – between ‘Team Kind’, who were enthusiastically behind me, and ‘Team Screw-them-all-and-be-evil’, who were very cynical (but who were also, thankfully, in the minority). It was seeing how passionate people were on both sides of the debate that made me realise there was something here I had to talk more about.
What has been the most joyful thing about the writing process – and the most challenging?
The joyful part for me, with any book, is the discovery. I was lucky enough to meet and interview some incredible businesses and leaders, and learned so much about how different businesses and people interpret and deploy kindness.
On a personal note, the day I got an endorsement for the book from [leadership and marketing guru] Seth Godin was a joyful moment. For him to say ‘nice work’ definitely helped me walk taller in the marketing of it.
The challenging part is always the edit! There was so much to say, but when it comes to writing, less is more. Leaving out good stuff is hard. It can also be hard to press send and let go of something when you’ve worked on it for a long time – this one was four years, start to finish. But books are a little like children: you can only spend so long shaping them and then they have to make their own way in the world.
If you weren’t doing this job, what would you do?
The other part of my work is taking the messages of KIND out to corporate audiences through keynotes and programmes. I’m also well known in Brighton, where I live, as a DJ. I guess my dream job would be to keep doing what I’m doing, but to add in ‘jet-setting superstar DJ’. I’m working on it!
How do you switch off?
My company has worked a four-day week for more than a decade. Having a Friday for reflection and rest is something I really cherish, and when you only have four work days in your week, you go ‘all in’ on every single one of them, so it makes us all more productive. I often start those Fridays with a swim in the sea, which I do all year round. I have a son with special educational needs, so he keeps me busy, too – you can usually find us riding a train somewhere (he loves trains).
This article first appeared in the winter 2025 issue of Edge. You can read it here
