Leadership and Compassion

Albert Einstein once said, "A human being is part of the whole called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affections for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

I know a lot of leaders that would consider this perspective a little too "touchy feely." Leaders who believe that leadership comes from thinking and acting. Compassion to these leaders means you are soft, weak and leaving yourself vulnerable to attack. That being tough, stoic, and bottom line focused is what it's all about. All of those things are critical to effective leadership.

But given the events since the beginning of this century that have been driven by bottom line orientation, greed, and speed this sure seems like an ideal time to revisit leadership that is grounded in compassion. Our culture has become one of looking for what is wrong in situations, people, ideas and opinions. What if for just one month each of us shifted our perspective to considering with curiosity, looking for what's right and believing that the other person's intentions are good?

Do we stop holding ourselves and others accountable? Absolutely not! In fact when we shift from judgment to compassion accountability levels will increase. Here's an example. Tara is a middle manager with a team of twelve people. Joe is consistently missing his deadlines not a typical habit for him. With a filter of judgment, Tara might say, "What's wrong with Joe? He's slipping. I'm going to need to come down hard on him to get him back on track. If that doesn't work, it will reflect badly on his next performance review."

Now consider what happens when Tara shifts to a filter of curiosiyt and compassion? Tara might think, "I wonder what's going on with Joe. He has a great track record, but he has been missing his commitments. I'm going to sit down with him, see what's going on and work with him to develop a plan of action to support his getting back on track."

Wow! What a difference in the energy that is expended, the toxic stress that is avoided, and the likelihood that Joe will get things back on track. And the bonus? Tara will have an even more loyal employee that she did before.

Seriously? Isn't that what leadership is all about?