In surveys of participants in our Compassionate Leadership and Resilience Training program, the number one hurdle to leading more compassionately is shown to be “excess demands on my time.” If the main challenge is finding time and space to complete the work one is already seeking to do, where will more time come from to learn to lead compassionately?
This is a false trade-off. Learning compassion is different from the way we learn other skills, and the required time commitment to do so is likewise quite different. In fact, leading compassionately can lead to an improved use of your own time as well as that of your team. Strengthening your compassion skills grows most strongly through action, and you can always act compassionately.
Compassion is innate.
Compassion is an innate skill that emerges in infants younger than two-years old. We already know how to practice compassion thanks to the history of human evolution. Early human communities that were the most mutually supportive bore the most babies and the healthiest babies. The power to support each other compassionately is a gift that we have been given from our ancestors long ago. You can say that we don’t really “learn” compassion, we re-remember it. Our modern culture has helped us forget how central compassion really is to thriving. Often before we remember, we need to clear away the conditioning that has labeled it an undesirable quality in leaders.
Compassion can be practiced always.
While compassion is innate, it still requires practice to strengthen and grow it. Practicing compassion is not like learning an instrument or a language. While growth in compassion and other skills is directly proportional to the time spent practicing the new skill, how we can practice is very different. Compassion can be practiced everywhere, in every human interaction, and with ourselves. All that is required is a focused intention to act with more compassion. A simple post-it note of self-kindness on your bathroom mirror can help remind you of your intention every day. A brief pause before engaging in a routine activity can help you choose to engage in that activity with intentional compassion.
Compassionate leadership can help free up the leader’s time.
Instead of requiring an added time commitment, the practice of compassion will ultimately free up time and allow leaders and their teams to live more efficiently and easefully. Think about how much time we spend unproductively worrying about the future (which is different from intentionally planning for the future) or ruminating about mistakes in the past (which is different from learning from past actions). Strengthen your self-compassion skills, and you will find it easier to break out of the distractible mindset that arises from pointless worrying or ruminating. Our greatest level of productivity occurs when we allow ourselves to be present to the moment and focus simply on the task in front of us.
As we become more compassionate and present with ourselves, others around us will feel it as well, and there will be a commensurate improvement in your team’s performance. Helping to ease the stress and regret of your team will create an environment of safety and healthy risk-taking, which will lead to more productivity, innovation, and creativity.
You can start today.
Because you can strengthen your compassionate leadership skills with small acts in everyday settings, know that you don’t have to wait until “the right moment.” The right moment is now. Whether it is the note on the mirror or a pause before stepping into someone’s office, it doesn’t take time to do the things you do every day with a little more compassion. It just takes an intentional heart.