3 Challenges Leaders Face When Creating A More Compassionate Workplace

Written by: Lauren Cartigny, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

In a world where employee engagement is at an all-time low, employee churn is at an all-time high, and the economic climate is complex and uncertain, companies need to make drastic changes to adapt to drastic times. This article looks at how Leaders can adapt their leadership style to be more compassionate.

Let’s remember the background of how we got here. The entire planet was locked down at home on and off for over 2 years, living in fear and deprived of human social contact. This resulted in people getting lots of time back from no commute and no social distractions, to reflect on their lives.

After so many of us living in auto-pilot mode, all this time allowed us to stop and question our daily habits, the way we spend our time, who we spend our time with, and of course, what we do for a living. So when it comes to going back to resuming “normal” work life, things were always going to be hard. Things were never going to be the same. So how does this impact Leadership?

This recovery phase requires Leaders to find more compassion to support their teams. Many doctors and scientists describe lockdown as psychological trauma, so like all trauma recovery is necessary. Equally, how do you find a balance between giving space to your team, who needs to adjust to feel seen, heard, reassured and motivated, while at the same time clarifying what is expected from them and when they need to dig deep and perform like never before?

Challenge number 1

Finding compassion for ourselves, to find compassion for others

Our relationship with ourselves sets the tone for how we relate to others, as leaders and as human beings. We cannot give to others, what we cannot give to ourselves. Finding patience to slow down, to listen, to seek to understand, and to be supportive, takes energy and compassion. The extent to which we can hold space for someone else will depend on how good we are at being patient with ourselves, slowing down, listening to our needs, and finding a way to support ourselves with or without the assistance of others.

For example, if you are used to not asking for help, and doing everything yourself; you will project that onto others and expect the same from them. This may make you less compassionate towards others. If you take time for yourself to identify your needs and find ways to meet them, you will be more understanding of helping someone else with that process because it is familiar to you.

Challenge number 2

Understanding the impact of diverse personality types

Some Leaders will have access to the compassionate part of their personality more easily than others. Like everything some skills come easy to some and need practising for others. Being compassionate involves learning to hold judgement back, to be neutral, and to give someone the benefit of the doubt before jumping to conclusions.

Some will find this hard. They may be more comfortable perceiving the world through actions, facts, and commitments. They may feel frustrated having to speak from a more emotional place, and that is ok. The key here is to learn how to tap into our compassion when we need it, for emotionally-centred conversations, for example, to deliver an inspiring speech to a demotivated team, to run a one-to-ones, to solve conflict etc.

Evaluating our compassion levels through personality profiles can be a useful thing to do when establishing areas of leadership development in this area. However, I feel important to note that the days of thinking you can outsource that to someone else are over. Compassion is a must-have for Leaders today to address human behavioural issues such as engagement. People will do what you do, not what you say.

Challenge number 3

Changing company systemic dynamics

The nature of the culture of an organisation will depend on the Founders’ and the CEO’s relationships to compassion. If it comes easily and naturally to them, this will flow down in the organisation. They will tend to hire compassionate leaders. Their company values will tend to be inclusive and relationship-centric. If the people at the top of the hierarchy are more task, action and commitment based, the company culture may need more conscious interventions to bring more compassion into leadership style and team dynamics.

Start-ups, and larger companies, tend to have leadership teams who are action, task and dedicated personality traits that are good at driving results. They tend to expect a lot from others and can be in danger of creating a culture prone to burnout if they don’t balance the high demands with compassionate initiatives and values.

In conclusion

Like everything, success comes from finding balance. We cannot drive results if we are too compassionate and too nice. At the same time, we cannot retain an engaged workforce if we expect too much from them, don’t integrate psychological safety in work cultures and invalidate employees' emotional needs.

The best compassionate leaders I have came across were during my time working at LinkedIn. They are trained in compassionate leadership and know how to hold a space for others’ emotional needs, and at the same time are firm and demanding of results.

The takeaway here is that when Leaders demonstrate that they respect their teams’ emotional and life needs, then they can rightly expect reciprocal commitment to respect their need for the delivery of results to keep the company on track in reaching their goals.

The bottom line is that your employers are a reflection of how your leadership shows up for them. It may be a hard truth for some, but if anything, let it be a calling to invest in training leaders to be more self-aware and conscious of how they leverage emotions at work to drive results.

It is my belief that Conscious Leaders will be in high demand in the future when companies realise that Leaders mastering self-awareness and emotional intelligence are the only ones creating high-performing teams, in these difficult times.

What role do you think Compassion plays in Leadership?

What examples can you share where compassion drives better results?

If you disagree, what challenges do you see with promoting more compassion in the workplace?

Either way, something needs to change. If this article resonates, let’s start a conversation, follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info!

Read more from Lauren!

Lauren Cartigny, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Lauren Cartigny is a Business and Life Professional Coach for Executives and Conscious Leadership Trainer. Following a successful international corporate career in Sales for leading Tech firms, Lauren faced an unexpected burnout. After re-learning how to perform from a place of well-being as opposed to delivering results from a place of suffering, Lauren has created transformative coaching and training programs for high achieving Leaders seeking to empower themselves with self-knowledge to improve their well-being, their relationships, and their results. Lauren is the Founder of The Self-Science Lab a personal development training company for professionals seeking to find Peace, Power and Purpose.