Monday, November 16, 2020

Being Compassionate Is A Powerful Action

"It is time to become passionate about what is best in us, and to create organizations that welcome our creativity, contribution, and compassion”, writes Margaret Wheatley. “We do this by using processes that bring us together to talk to one another, listen to one another's stories, reflect together on what we're learning as we do our work. We do this by developing relationships of trust, where we do what we say, where we speak truthfully, where we refuse to act from petty self-interest.”


I am in 100% agreement with Margaret Wheatley. This is the time for us to come together to listen, share, reflect and learn. Given the challenges before us at this time period, we need more creativity, collaboration and compassion.


But many leaders do not consider compassion to be an essential  leadership skill. Instead, they focus on efficiency, speed, reading metrics and risk taking. While these are all important, I continually remind leaders that people commit to people before they commit to a plan. And, as the Gallup organization’s research shows us, people quit because of the relationship they have with their supervisor more than the relationship they have with the company. 


Over many decades of working with a wide diversity of people, teams and organizations, I have witnessed great leadership, highly adaptive teams and amazing outcomes. I have seen plans developed and executed flawlessly resulting in new and innovative solutions. And at the heart of it all are strong and healthy relationships amongst those involved. As Margaret Wheatley explains, “In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.”


And from my perspective, the capacity to form these relationships begins with authentic compassion, namely the ability to respect a person’s journey including their challenges and their choices. When we realize how difficult life’s journey can be and recognize the complexity of choices people have to make over time, we start to build and maintain relationships based on integrity and understanding rather than judgement and self-interest.


This week, I challenge you to be more compassionate and to develop more relationships built on trust rather than positional authority.


Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post this morning Geery. Thank you for sharing this good message.

    ReplyDelete