Questions about bringing compassion to difficult situations are among the most common queries we receive at the Center for Compassionate Leadership. Compassionate Leadership: How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way, by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, encourages leaders to take a bigger picture perspective when “hard things” arise.

For twenty years, Kristin Neff has been the leading voice in the field of self-compassion. Her groundbreaking 2003 research paper founded the field, and her first book brought the practice to the broader world. Now, with Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive, Neff brings our understanding of self-compassion to a whole new level.

While 2020 will undoubtedly live in history as a year that people will want to put behind them, these five books each offer wisdom that we will want to keep with us and take forward into 2021. Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy these books and deepen your appreciation for, and practices around, compassionate leadership.

Welcome to the Compassion 2.0 Podcast preview post! In the podcast’s premiere episode, host Lori Schwanbeck interviews grass-roots organizer and contemplative teacher Shelly Tygielski. Be inspired by Shelly’s Pandemic of Love project and learn how to get past the overwhelm of taking action.

“How do we save ourselves, and how do we save the world?” That question (one we frequently hear at the Center for Compassionate Leadership) was at the core of the Wisdom 2.0 Mindfulness in America conference. Here’s just a taste of the insights we gained from the likes of Soren Gordhamer, Richard Davidson, Sharon Salzberg, Dan Siegel, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Rhonda V. Magee, and David Simas.

In The Mind of the Leader, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter offer a clear, structured means for leaders to achieve greater individual engagement and create environments that are more responsive to the relational needs of today’s workplace.

For our inaugural blog post, we thought we’d start with a question we are all curious about, Compassionate Leadership: “What is it?” First, let’s start with a shared understanding of compassion. A classic definition of compassion is the desire to alleviate the suffering of others. When we break that down, we believe that effective compassion requires three elements: an awareness of others and their feelings, an empathetic response to their condition, and finally an ability and desire to act. The key is putting compassion into action.