Lifestyle

Kindness First: Lessons From Ellen DeGeneres

Published

6 months ago

January 16, 2026

The Power of Kindness in a World Divided

Let’s accept that it’s easy to be kind when others share your views. It’s when someone has a very different opinion on a topic that you might explode with anger. In those times, being kind is most challenging and most important.

In today’s world, people are constantly judging one another, arguing with one another, and generally dismissing each other’s ideas without any second thoughts. Families are torn apart over politics. People become enraged over their differences in beliefs surrounding religion. Even small disagreements escalate into full-blown arguments on social media. However, all of that anger and hostility does not help anyone.

Ellen’s Enduring Message

This is why Ellen DeGeneres has maintained her message of kindness throughout her career. Every show ended with her saying “Be kind to one another” — a constant reminder to the world of the importance of being kind to one another every day as a choice.

Ellen has always used her experience to focus on what brings her audience joy and laughter, and helping them feel good about themselves. In helping people feel good about themselves, Ellen demonstrates through her comedy that one does not need to bring down another person to lift themselves up. One can also choose to treat, honour, and respect others, even those they may disagree with.

Why Kindness Matters When We Disagree

When’s the last time that someone has changed your mind by treating you badly? Probably never. Hostile behaviour just shuts people down, puts them on the defensive and builds a wall.

On the other hand, Ellen demonstrates that the opposite of kind behaviour is the opposite. Using contempt places a wall between people that does not exist with kind behaviour, and allows real dialogue to exist. When respect and disagreement co-exist, the other person is told, “I see that you are a human being just like me, and while I do not agree with you, I am open to your perspective and will take your position into consideration. Thanks for being you. Sometimes that is what is needed, and that is all it takes to find common ground.”

Learning and Growing Together

Ellen has been forgiven by much of her audience, with fans choosing to focus on the humor, kindness, and positivity she has brought into the world over decades. While past controversies once clouded her public image, her openness, self-reflection, and continued commitment to spreading joy have allowed many to move past old criticisms. Today, audiences celebrate Ellen not just for her career, but for the larger message she represents—that even public figures can grow, learn, and continue inspiring kindness.

As Ellen reminds us, “Everything bad that’s ever happened to me has taught me compassion.” And isn’t that what kindness is really about? Learning from our struggles and extending that understanding to others. She also said, “It always helps to think about other people instead of ourselves”—words that perfectly capture what it means to choose kindness even when disagreement makes us want to dig in our heels.

The truth is, every small act of kindness adds up. Every time you choose grace over anger, you’re making the world a little bit better.

Kindness Without Compromise

On the other hand, kindness does not mean that you have to defend an opinion, nor that you cannot defend that which you consider right. Furthermore, kindness doesn’t come from letting people walk all over you.

More to the point, kindness is about how we deal with people, not whether we agree with them or not. It is possible to have a strong opinion about something, and be respectful to all. We can advocate for what we think is right, and not be perceived as the bad person. Kindness makes the message we spread much more powerful and people listen to us more.

Putting Kindness Into Practice

What does this mean for you? What does this look like in real life?

Maybe it means having to listen to his probably not-so-valuable political opinions, helping out a neighbor, trying to stop your frustration by not going on a mean comment on someone’s Facebook post.

You might find these things meaningless and not valuable, however, the world needs these ‘small’ random acts of kindness, which, by the way, are contagious.

You are already setting the path for a better and kinder world by disagreeing with people in a polite way and, while to you, the act of kindness might not mean much, to the receiver of the kindness, it would mean to someone a lot.

Lifestyle

Why Toba Ogunremi Believes High-Performing Teams Start with Belonging, Not Pressure

Published

8 hours ago

July 23, 2026

Michelle Langton

Most teams don’t fall apart all at once. It happens slowly, missed conversations, quiet disengagement, people doing what’s required but nothing more.

Toba Ogunremi has spent years working inside care environments where that kind of shift is easy to miss until it starts affecting everything. Leading operations at Samorem Care in the UK, he has seen how systems can appear stable on the surface while teams underneath struggle to stay connected to their work.

One experience early in his career changed how he looks at leadership entirely.

He had taken over a team that wasn’t in crisis, but it wasn’t working well either. The people receiving care were safe, but they weren’t thriving. The same was true for the staff. There was no urgency, no energy, just routine.

The usual solution would have been to tighten control by setting new targets, increasing supervision, and creating performance plans. He didn’t do any of that.

“I started with conversations,” he says. “Real ones. Not rushed, not formal.”

One by one, he spoke to each team member. What came out wasn’t frustration with the job itself, but something quieter and harder to spot.

“They weren’t disengaged because they didn’t care,” he explains. “They were disengaged because they felt unseen.”

No one had asked what they thought. No one had taken the time to understand how they were coping. Over time, that absence had turned into distance. That moment stayed with him. It shaped how he leads today.

His approach is simple, but not always easy to apply: people perform better when they feel they belong.

He believes high performance usually comes when people feel like they genuinely belong and know that what they do actually matters.

In healthcare, where pressure is constant and expectations are high, this idea can sound secondary. The focus is often on outcomes, compliance, and efficiency. Toba doesn’t dismiss those things, but he questions what happens when they become the only focus.

Even when all the processes are in place, if the people delivering the care feel disconnected, it eventually reflects in the quality of the work.

At Samorem Care, this thinking shows up in small but consistent ways. Recruitment is not just about experience. It’s about how someone responds to people, how they handle pressure, and how they communicate. Once they are in, the focus shifts to keeping teams stable and supported, rather than constantly rotating staff or reacting only when something goes wrong. He also pays attention to how leaders show up day to day.

According to him, leadership is not just about giving direction; it’s about being present enough to understand what your team actually needs.

That presence matters more in care than in most industries. The work is demanding, often emotional, and not always recognised for what it takes. When teams feel stretched or overlooked, it affects how they interact with the people they support.

For Toba, resilience is less about constant pressure and more about creating a work environment where people can do their jobs well without burning out. In his view, strong teams are not just coping; they are supported enough to stay clear-headed and consistent in their work.

His background outside healthcare still shapes how he leads. Having worked in sales and communications, he understands how important it is to read people and build trust. In healthcare, though, the impact is far more direct, as decisions affect someone’s everyday life, not just an outcome on paper.

That shift makes leadership more personal. Teams need more than instructions; they need stability, clarity, and a sense that they are understood. What defines Toba Ogunremi’s approach is its simplicity. He focuses on being consistent, listening carefully, and addressing issues early rather than reacting late.

In the end, his belief is straightforward: teams perform better not because they are pushed harder, but because they feel valued and part of something that works.