Why Kindness Is the Key to Lean Leadership

How Kind Leadership Builds Trust, Engagement, and Sustainable Continuous Improvement

Webinar Description

Lean leadership is often discussed in terms of tools, behaviors, and performance systems—but rarely through the lens of kindness.

In this on-demand KaiNexus webinar, Karen Ross explores why kindness is not a “soft” concept or a leadership nicety, but a critical capability for effective Lean leadership.

Drawing on decades of experience as a Lean practitioner, coach, and former Toyota leader, Karen challenges common assumptions about leadership and continuous improvement. She explains why Lean itself is neutral—and how leadership behavior determines whether Lean creates trust, engagement, and learning… or fear, compliance, and disengagement.

Grounded in real-world examples, Taiichi Ohno’s teachings, and practical leadership insights, this session reframes Lean leadership as fundamentally human work—work that requires empathy, presence, and action.

Rather than focusing on theory alone, Karen shares specific, practical ways leaders can begin leading with kindness immediately, improving both results and relationships.

View all previous KaiNexus Continuous Improvement Webinars

What You’ll Learn

• Why Lean tools and principles are neutral—and leadership behavior determines their impact

• The critical difference between being nice and being kind as a leader

• What Taiichi Ohno meant by being a “reliable boss” at the gemba

• How kindness builds trust, psychological safety, and engagement

• Why action—not intention—is the foundation of kind leadership

• Practical behaviors leaders can use today to lead with kindness

Who This Webinar Is For

This webinar is especially valuable for:

• Executives and senior leaders responsible for culture and performance

• Lean, continuous improvement, and operational excellence leaders

• Managers seeking to strengthen trust and engagement on their teams

• Leaders struggling with resistance, disengagement, or fear-based cultures

• Organizations aiming to align Lean principles with respect for people

Key Insight: Lean Is a Thing—Leadership Is Human

Lean tools don’t lead people. Leaders do.

As Karen explains, sustainable continuous improvement depends on how leaders show up—how they listen, how they respond to mistakes, and how they act in moments that matter.

Kind leadership creates the conditions for trust, learning, and growth. Without it, even the best Lean systems fall short.

About the Presenter:

Karyn Ross

Karyn is on a mission to Help People Create a Better, Kinder World. An artist, internationally acclaimed speaker, award-winning author, consultant, coach and practitioner, Karyn travels the globe teaching people her unique system of combining creativity, continuous improvement and kindness to make a better world. As well as being the owner of KRC (Karyn Ross Consulting) Karyn is one of the Founding Mothers of Women in Lean – Our Table, a global group of more than seven hundred and fifty women lean practitioners. Karyn is also Founder and President of the Love and Kindness Project Foundation, a registered public charity and The New School for Kind Leaders. She has created both of these initiatives to help people around the world think, speak, act and lead more kindly.

Karyn’s sixth book is The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust and Leading with Kindness. Karyn’s five other books are: How to Coach for Creativity and Service Excellence: A Lean Coaching Workbook, the Shingo-award winning The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations, I’ll Keep You Posted: 102 of My Reflections to Help You Start – and Deepen – Your Own Active Reflection Process, Think Kindly – Speak Kindly – Act Kindly: 366 Easy and Free Ideas You Can Use to Create a Kinder World…Starting Today, and Big Karma and Little Kosmo Help Each Other. Proceeds from books fund The Love and Kindness Project Foundation.

When not traveling, Karyn spends time designing and sewing her own clothes! Follow Karyn on LinkedIn for a daily inspirational post about creativity, kindness and/or continuous improvement.