Compassionate Leadership

Compassion, empathy's close relative, is my main focus in this article. Both are key to achieving positive outcomes in organisational life.

They work hand in hand: empathy allows us to understand someone and their feelings, then compassion enables us to act with respect and kindness, taking responsibility for addressing their concerns and solving their problems or grievances.

Action is key. Doing something. Creating a shift. Ultimately all my coaching work has this aim, and compassion without action might even be a failure of leadership.

Compassionate leaders drive positive change, and we urgently need more compassionate leadership in business and society, don’t we?

Surprisingly, compassion can be seen by some as "weak" or "soft"; I've long noticed that the people prone to talking about "the soft stuff" are often the ones who find it rather hard in practice.

In any case I disagree: it is neither weak nor soft for leaders to be in touch with their own and others' emotions, to be human, to be authentic, to care. It comes with the territory or at least it should. And let's be clear: compassionate leadership doesn't mean being a pushover. Compassionate leaders still make tough decisions, hold people accountable, and maintain high standards—they simply do so with genuine care for the people involved.

We can't escape the fact that business is fundamentally about execution, nor should we, so let's push for greater balance. We should champion leaders and future-leaders who lead with both empathy and compassion.

It makes immense sense: successful leaders in many key sectors increasingly have both high IQ and high EQ, combining commercialism and business nous with values and compassionate behaviours.

But how?

Your people want to know that you really understand how they feel about their challenges, that you feel them yourself, and that you are working for their success.

Compassionate leaders show unconditional care and concern for others. They work to create deep connections with other people, to treat everyone fairly, to foster inclusion in their organisation, to embrace innovation and those who think differently.

Importantly, this also creates a ripple effect throughout the organization—when leaders model compassionate behavior, it spreads through teams and departments, creating a culture where people feel valued and are more likely to show care for each other.

You can build your compassionate leadership by focusing on these key challenges:

• What can you do to anticipate the needs of your team? If you are CEO that means the needs of everyone in your business as well as the needs of those with a direct reporting line to you.

• How will you "walk in the shoes" of people around you?

• How will you really listen?

• What will you do to show that you genuinely care and don't simply "play nicely because it makes good commercial sense"?

• Can people in your team(s) really talk to you? That's really talk to you.

And, of course, I want you ensure that you are being compassionate to yourself.

Maybe that must come first so, be honest, how adept are you at that?