Throughout history, the action of courageous individuals has led humanity through challenging moments into a period of greater flourishing. How do compassionate leaders respond in the face of challenge without disengaging, burning out or becoming overwhelmed? We all want to play our part, as far as we can. Here are some ways to help move into action and make a positive contribution.
In celebration of this week’s International Day of Peace, we would like to share the article we wrote for this summer’s Peace Chronicle, the journal of the Peace and Justice Studies Association. Peace and justice require us to address the systemic issues underlying and causing suffering. Systems change is where courage and compassion come together to make a difference in our challenged world.
We are seeing a backlash to the backlash to “return to the office.” As organizations set rules for physical presence, workers pushed back. Now, there’s a new concern: the absence of spontaneous and casual interactions that occur in person. We’re a relational species, and times demand we create more intention around nurturing relationships. Use these 3 steps to deepen connections to your colleagues and strengthen your teams.
Quiet quitting is the practice of meeting the requirements of the job and doing no more. Whatever the cause or interpretation of quiet quitting, it doesn’t address the root cause for all involved. Compassionate leaders are particularly well equipped to prevent quiet quitting or heal the troubles behind it.
Compassionate leaders are well-served by integrating head, heart, and body knowledge. One of our favorite ways of strengthening our head knowledge is curling up with a well-written book and exploring the themes and wisdom within. Here are a few recent reads that would be valuable for any compassionate leader to dig into.
Taking action in the face of uncertainty is scary. As uncertainty and complexity increase, our deepest survival instincts become set off even more. These pressures are particularly pronounced for leaders. Leaders need to sort out matters in their own life and they have teams turning to them for answers. These uncertain times are a chance for leaders to rise by anchoring with equanimity, leading with transparency, and responding to the world pragmatically.
Compassionate leaders understand the importance of emotional intelligence and body intelligence, in addition to that of head-based intelligence. In recognizing these other forms of knowing, we simultaneously broaden our powers of understanding and responding to the world, and we deepen our capacity to use our miraculous thinking brain.
The premise at the heart of Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself by Stephen Trzeciak, M.D. and Anthony Mazzarelli, M.D. is straightforward: By serving others, the authors say, “your life will crack wide open in only the best ways.” The book is clearly well titled. If serving others can do all this, it is truly a wonder drug.
Lack of knowledge is one of the most common barriers to leading compassionately. Many leaders have said they would like to strengthen their compassion skills but lack the knowledge as to how to do it. Science shows that this is a capacity that we have always had. Recognizing that compassion and leadership are complementary can set us on the path of growing our compassionate leadership.
We are a competitive species. Sometimes so much so that we work well past the point of flourishing. Can we courageously make choices in our leadership and life that support thriving for ourselves and for the whole world. To do this, we need to overcome our impulse to perfectionism and the difficulty we have setting healthy boundaries.
