The need for compassion is almost universally recognized in healthcare, but there is a “disconnect” between recognizing that need and meeting it. As we learned at the 2019 Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference, applicable best practices are all around us – in customer-focused brands like Starbucks, Nordstrom, and the Boston Red Sox.

Where can you find the role models, both individual and organizational, that embody the qualities and positive results of compassionate leadership? Many of the best practices are found in the healthcare industry. Read more from our recent experiences at the 2019 Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference.

We just recently discovered a wonderful app that offers you a daily routine to help you feel a little more connected to the rest of humanity. The app is called Daily Haloha, and I am so appreciative to have found it. After only a week of engaging, I can’t wait for each day’s fill in the blank.

Chris Whitehead’s Compassionate Leadership: Creating Places of Belonging covers an exceptionally comprehensive amount of territory related to compassionate leadership, and does so in a well-structured manner.

Our first thoughts after attending this year’s Compassion in Action Healthcare Conference, which brought 600 leaders from around the globe to address urgent challenges in the healthcare system and collaborate on solutions by putting compassion at the core of practice for patients, providers, systems and institutions.

In these turbulent times many factors can cause us to feel separate from others. The separation can be initiated by differences in identity or by people’s behavior. The cause can be conscious or it can be unconscious. Yet, there is a more compassionate approach to dealing with these challenges, an approach that will help bring us together instead of drive us apart. Try the simple practice of Just Like Me to experience a more compassionate response.

Many people think that leadership and compassion don’t belong together. In reality, they strengthen and complement each other. Leaders who lead with compassion get better results, and the compassion we so profoundly need in this world will be developed most effectively if our leaders are acting compassionately and spreading compassion.

On the occasion of #woodstock50, Laura Berland reflects on how the familiar lyrics of The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, align perfectly with the compassionate path from awareness, to empathy, to compassionate action, to transformation.

If you want to engage in compassionate leadership, one way to nurture a safe environment is by using language that does not activate a stress response. Use these six phrases to foster the creation of a secure and inclusive environment where all team members feel like they belong.

For our first guest blog post, Jennifer Kammeyer, M.A., offers up this “5-Minute Primer on Compassion in Leadership” filled with lessons learned at the recent Compassion in Leadership Summit hosted by Wisdom 2.0 and LinkedIn.