Michael Neece: Kindness as Culture

Michael Neece has spent his career moving across disciplines, he has been a science teacher, martial arts instructor, planetarium presenter, computer programmer, consultant, author, and leadership advocate. Across industries, he noticed that organizations succeed when people are treated with dignity and respect. When humanity is ignored, performance eventually suffers.

Today, Michael is President of Our Future is Kind and co-founder of The Human Summit, where he works with leaders and organizations to build cultures rooted in kindness. His focus is not on kindness as a feel-good concept, but as a practical leadership approach that affects trust, retention, engagement, and long-term success.

One of the earliest influences on his thinking came from a mentor named Jim Horn at Morehead Planetarium. He illustrated a leadership style rooted in empathy and curiosity rather than blame. As a student employee moving into supervisory roles, Michael often dealt with peers who were late, improperly dressed, or had said the wrong thing to audiences. Each time, Jim’s first question was, “What’s going on in this person’s life?” instead of attacking their performance. He pushed Michael to consider causes like car trouble, miscommunication about shift times, personal issues - before judgment. This consistent focus on understanding context and preserving people’s dignity taught Michael that effective leadership means seeing the whole human, not just the mistake, and that reacting with accusation and “blame-storming” harms both morale and performance.

Michael shared a story from another role, where bosses acted without regard for the employee’s wellbeing. A colleague who returned to work after suffering a stroke was not welcomed back by asking how she was doing, instead her managers focused immediately on work responsibilities. The absence of simple human concern left a lasting impact. Her morale declined, her engagement suffered, and she eventually left the organization.

He contrasted that experience with the story of Damion McCloud, who approached his leadership team while caring for his seriously ill mother. Instead of questioning his commitment, they trusted him and gave him the flexibility he needed. That support strengthened his loyalty to the organization and increased his desire to contribute. Michael sees stories like these as evidence that kindness is not separate from business results. It helps create them.

Michael also spoke about kindness toward ourselves. While writing his book In Kind: Consciously Craft a Meaningful Life and Career, he pushed himself beyond healthy limits while balancing work, family, and writing. The result was a stroke. Although he recovered, the experience fundamentally changed his understanding of self-care. He later confronted a friend who was neglecting his own health, telling him, "You need to take good care of my dear friend." The statement reflected a lesson Michael had learned firsthand: kindness sometimes requires accountability.

Leadership, in Michael’s view, is inseparable from trust. He describes a scene from Star Trek: Discovery where Captain Pike, already in crisis mode, lets himself be interrupted and redirected by Commander Michael Burnham, who has critical information he lacks. For Michael, that moment captures real leadership: effective leaders don’t need to have every answer, but they do need to trust the people around them and build a culture where, speaking up, especially to challenge or redirect a leader, is expected and safe.

Throughout the conversation, Michael returned to the idea that culture is shaped by what leaders consistently model and reinforce. Kindness cannot be a poster on the wall or a slogan in a handbook. It must be reflected in daily decisions, conversations, and actions.

"What leaders tolerate is what they will cultivate."

Michael Neece is helping leaders build cultures where kindness is treated as a strategic advantage and a human responsibility. His work demonstrates that when kindness becomes part of how organizations operate, trust grows, people thrive, and the effects extend far beyond the workplace. Keep an eye out for more interviews.