Compassionate leaders are leaders who change the culture of the organizations they work in. When you have leaders who actually care about the people they lead, the employees notice. A job goes from being just a job to something different. The job could become a mission. It may become a mission field. Or it may even become a lifelong experience. But you can become a compassionate leader.
With so many hard-nosed, angry, and frustrated leaders, we don’t see as many compassionate leaders as we should. Instead, we put up with cranky, tense leaders who make the working environment unpleasant.
You can change this. You just have to work on becoming a compassionate leader.
You Can Become A Compassionate Leader
As you work toward becoming a more compassionate leader, I want you to keep the following thoughts and ideas in mind. These actions will help you become what you want to be: a more caring leader.
1. Show appreciation on a regular basis:
The act of gratitude, or appreciation, changes a person. The more you show your people how much you appreciate them, the more compassionate you will become.
Tell your team members thank you, I appreciate you, or you did a great job when you see them do something you appreciated. They’ll get a boost of dopamine, and so will you.
2. Put yourself in others’ shoes:
It’s hard to feel for someone when you can’t relate to them. As you rise through the ranks of an organization, you get further and further away from those you lead.
The more money you make, the different office moves, and the heavier responsibilities can make you distant and forgetful of where you’ve come from.
Use role-playing and thinking to place yourself in the shoes of others. Think about what they’re experiencing, how they’re experiencing it, and why. You’ll discover their motivations and feelings will differ drastically from yours.
3. A Compassionate Leader Takes Time to Listen:
I get it. Your days are filled with action items, to-do lists, and fires to put out. You don’t have the time to listen.
That’s where you’re wrong.
You have the time to listen. But you have to make it. When you make the time, you won’t regret it.
