Results recently released from a Binghamton University study prove that kindness and compassion are the key to better employee performance. The University’s researchers surveyed one-thousand members of the Taiwanees Army and 200 fulltime US workers.

They looked at three types of leadership:

  • Authoritarian-dominant leaders
  • Benevolence-dominant leaders
  • Classic paternalistic leaders

The latter style combines the first two. They found that the authoritarian–dominant style almost always had a negative impact on job performance. The benevolent and paternal styles almost always affected job performance positively. Such was the case across cultures.

The report surmises that how people respond to leadership styles goes all the way back to the parent-child relationship, which is the first leader-follower relationship we experience, and a prototype for what we expect.