The power of Compassion in leadership

In today’s competitive and fast-paced world, compassionate leadership can be used as a transformative force for exceptional performance, enhanced employee wellbeing and a harmonious work environment. Compassionate leaders improve job satisfaction among their reports, reduce stress by assessing challenging situations in more positive ways and drive positive change across an organisation. Leaders who demonstrate compassion and encourage open and honest communication, create psychologically safe environments where team members can voice ideas which contribute to the creativity and innovation of their teams.

So, what do we mean by compassionate leadership? While some individuals may possess innate qualities of compassion, compassionate leadership can be developed and nurtured at any stage of the individual’s career, whether a team leader or an executive director. Leading with compassion involves cultivating a culture of empathy and kindness, actively listening to team members and their perspectives and motivating individuals to reach their full potential. By their own role modelling of compassionate approaches, compassionate leaders inspire others to follow suit in creating truly inclusive, supportive and effective work environments.

As occupational psychologists, we know that showing sustained and genuine compassion for others, starts with leaders being able to enact self-compassion and self-care for themselves. Leaders and managers require a skill set which enables them to not only care for, support and develop those they lead, but also maintain their own psychological wellbeing and resilience.

In the public and healthcare sectors, such as the NHS, compassionate leadership is especially crucial. Compassionate leaders in healthcare settings prioritise patient-centred care and promote a caring environment for both patients and healthcare professionals, resulting in better patient outcomes and reduced burnout amongst staff members.

Compassionate Leadership Coaching Programme

Our eight-week ‘Compassionate Leadership Coaching Programme’ builds the resilience and confidence of leaders to positively manage a high-pressure working environment and stay well at work. The programme supports the creation of a compassionate and inclusive organisational culture through the impact and effectiveness of its leaders.

Designed by Dr Amanda Super, an expert in the field of compassion and self-compassion, the programme develops leaders’ understanding of the theory and practice of compassionate leadership. It also teaches the practice of self-compassion as the foundation for their development of compassionate leadership behaviours.

Available online to managers, leaders and senior executives at all levels, participants leave able to enact and role model self-compassion and compassionate leadership practices in their workplace.

Consisting of facilitated coaching sessions, training webinars, practical tasks, reflective practice, action planning and podcasts, the programme can be delivered in small groups of up to five participants per cohort or one to one with our expert facilitators. Upon completion a full evaluation of programme is undertaken and insights are provided to the commissioning organisation of any key organisational themes which could support their organisational development strategy. Additionally, ‘Communities of Practice’ are created which are supported by our occupational psychologists to embed the learning back in the workplace.

Creating Compassion has delivered this programme with hundreds of leaders across many organisations who have seen the benefits. This is what one participant had to say:

“The best takeaway for me was that I can role model compassionate leadership by focusing on all my interactions/conversations in the workplace – this was a revelation for me.”

For organisations and individuals who are still not sure whether this is the right approach for their workplace, we also offer our three hour ‘Introduction to Compassionate Leadership Workshop’ which gives a cost-effective taster of the areas covered in our eight-week Compassionate Leadership Coaching programme.

Introduction to Compassionate Leadership Workshop

Our three-hour online workshop equips up to 12 attendees with the essential skills and knowledge to start cultivating a compassionate leadership style within their organisation. Organisations use the workshop to support their strategic aims to develop effective leadership at all levels.

Through interactive sessions, facilitated discussion, case studies and practical exercises, participants explore the theory, research and techniques that foster compassionate leadership, including the building of compassionate cultures. A range of tools helps participants embed a compassionate approach to their interactions with different stakeholders including for example, role modelling good practice in using compassion for challenging conversations.

The workshop also emphasises the value of adopting self-compassion by leaders. It introduces the three core components of self-compassion, their application in the workplace and highlights the significance of self-care and reflection in maintaining an empathetic and supportive leadership style.

Leaders are helped to make the connection from their own personal practice of self-compassion to their leadership role and interactively discuss the challenges of achieving this at work along with ways to overcome these barriers.

We fully evaluate our programmes after completion with feedback forms completed by participants.

This is just one testimonial from a participant:

“This workshop gave me a really informative introduction to self-compassion and compassionate leadership. This will enable me to have a different approach to more challenging conversations with my team and enable me to listen, empathise and act in a more compassionate manner.”