At the Center for Compassionate Leadership, we have the privilege of supporting the spread of organizational compassion in different settings and circumstances all around the globe. Compassionate leaders who recognize the shared common humanity of everyone they work with, and the value of cooperation and collaboration, are creating organizations that contribute to individual flourishing and positive organizational performance.
Organizations that prioritize compassion, safety, connection, and belonging are still in the minority and countercultural to our traditional organizational and belief systems. The community of dedicated compassionate leaders who want to contribute to a more compassionate world still faces many challenges within mainstream work culture. How do we continue to stay resourced and motivated?
Be Courageous, Inspirational, and Humble
The world is at an inflection point. It is time to evolve from a “survival of the fittest” mentality to an approach that emphasizes cooperation that results in individual and organizational thriving. Change, however, is hard, and our natural fear of uncertainty creates a resistance that compassionate leaders must overcome. Compassionate leadership is a path that requires courage to chart a different course and dismantle the entrenched and outmoded ways of operating.
Change requires more than brute force stronger than the force of resistance. While people would prefer to work in environments that are more supportive than the status quo, the fear of uncertainty can overwhelm the appeal of a new, better way, rendering change efforts futile. Leaders who acknowledge and respect the fear of change can inspire with a vision of a healthier organization by modeling effective compassionate behavior backed by research-based evidence.
In addition to courage, it requires persistence to maintain compassion work over long periods of time without burning out. It also requires great humility to recognize that we are each limited in how much change we can bring and to acknowledge what is our part to play. A constant, humble approach can build momentum that grows and grows in impact.
Stay Present to the Moment
We need an inspiring vision of a more compassionate world to guide us. But the rubber meets the road in the actions we take on a day-to-day basis. There are so many distractions that can draw us away from keeping our focus on what is ours to do right now.
Dwelling on the past pulls us away from today. It is important to learn from both successes and failures, and to use that learning to inform what is needed next. But it can be all too easy to be overcome with the regret of failures and allow that regret to paralyze us in the current moment. Or, we can luxuriate in the glow of victory for too long as the world moves on.
Likewise, an excessive focus on the future can keep us from taking wise action right now. Our anticipated fears and anxieties can hold us back from acting. Even focusing on beneficial outcomes that our compassionate vision has targeted can distract us from the reality of what is right in front of us. Attaching to the outcome, good or bad, will distract you from your mission.
Stay present in the now, and you will find freedom from the regrets of the past and the anxiety about the future.
Find Your Fellow Compassion Revolutionaries
It is easy in the midst of challenging circumstances to recognize and name what is wrong. What we look for, we will find. For this reason, it is critical to look for colleagues who also hunger for a more compassionate world. Because compassion can be viewed negatively in our fast-paced, competitive world, those like-minded individuals are often simply hiding in plain sight. The systems in which we operate do not focus on or reward compassion, and many people are afraid to speak and act compassionately.
In reality, at a deep human level, no one seeks a harsher, more difficult world, even though their behaviors may run counter to this notion. People need to experience first-hand that compassion is not only possible in organizational settings, but that the skills and practices can be trained to build compassionate environments. If you allow your compassion to shine, others are there, waiting to connect and follow.
It is like fireflies on a summer evening. As night falls, a look across the lawn turns up nothing. But then, a firefly flickers. It catches your eye so you pay more attention, and you realize that there’s more than one firefly. In fact, it’s not just one or two, but many. And before you know it, your entire field of vision is filled with numerous fireflies. The spread of compassion can unfold in organizations and beyond just like the lighting of the night sky with fireflies.
In Closing…
Your heart has led you to courageously walk the path less traveled. As you encounter the challenges and obstacles remember you are not alone. Now is the time to take a stand with and for each other, and for the compassionate world we are creating together.