In 'traditional' leadership, empathy and compassion were often seen as weaknesses, an overly emotional approach that simply wasn't appropriate in an office environment. Not so in 2023. Showing empathy and compassion for your team allows you to connect with others, build stronger relationships and creates a supportive and inclusive environment that allows people to thrive.
But does everyone have the capability of empathetic, compassionate leadership?
It’s important to remember that having empathy and demonstrating empathy is not the same thing, some people may struggle to express the feeling externally, but in the workplace, it is important to outwardly demonstrate that you acknowledge how your team is feeling if you want them to feel valued and supported. Empathy can certainly be learned, and research supports this, however the way that we show empathy can be due to our emotional wiring or the environment in which we were brought up. There will be some people who choose not to have empathy and have no interest in changing – but if a leader has the will to explore new ways of doing things, then we need to support them to do that.
We should be supporting leaders to connect with empathy and lead with compassion.
Compassion is where there is action and can even mitigate the risk of burnout for the leader, while empathy shows an awareness and understanding of the problem, compassion goes that one step further to try to alleviate the pain and suffering of the other person. While it is much more active, it is not soft. A compassionate leader understands that sometimes hard decisions need to be made to meet the organisation’s values, but compassion still allows you to make these decisions kindly. According to research, employees who experience a compassionate leader have 34% higher job satisfaction, 36% higher organisational commitment, are 54% happier with their leader, and 22% less likely to suffer burnout.
Empathetic and compassionate leadership is more important than ever, as businesses try to navigate uncertainty, the current economic climate, and shifting staff priorities. We have to create environments where empathy and compassion are the norm if we want to mitigate against negative stress in the workplace. If our teams are in a constant state of stress then they shut down part of their brain, the part that can rationalize, solve complex problems, and innovate.
Here are my recommended reads this month if you’re looking to learn more about what empathy and compassion means in practice.
Compassionate Leadership
by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
As founder and CEO of Potential Project, Rasmus Hougaard and his longtime co-author, Jacqueline Carter, show the importance of balancing caring for your people with leadership wisdom and effectiveness. Using data from thousands of leaders, employees, and companies in nearly a hundred countries, the authors find that when leaders bring the right balance of compassion and wisdom to the job, they foster much higher levels of employee engagement, performance, loyalty, and wellbeing in their people.
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Brené Brown spent the past two decades researching the emotions that give meaning to our lives. How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders? And, how do you embed the value of courage in your culture? Dare to Lead answers these questions and gives us actionable strategies and real examples from her new research-based, courage-building programme.
Ivan Hollingsworth is the founder and director of Centric Consultants – a business founded in a bid to tackle ‘culture-washing’ and support business leaders to build strong, sustainable, high-performing teams based on trust and psychological safety.
For more insights on what company culture truly means, and how to implement change across your business follow Centric Consultants on LinkedIn or email Ivan directly at ivan@centric-consultants.com
