Welcome to The Journey
As a newish entrepreneur, I’m learning a lot after spending >25 years in a corporate structure leading and developing others.
I’d like to share what I’m learning as it relates to being vulnerable, curious and growth minded. It may be messy, but please enjoy for any of the tidbits that resonate with you.
This mini-blog theme is focused on the importance of compassion and empathy in the workplace. It’s no longer nice to have soft-skills but can be the difference for employee retention and performance.
Can Compassion Prevent Burnout?
Yes, and It’s Science!
According to the HBR Article Leading With Compassion Has Research-Backed Benefits Stephen Trzeciak, Anthony Mazzarelli and Emma Seppala highlight that compassionate leaders offer the following business benefits:
- Increased job satisfaction
- Loyalty and Trust
- Employee retentionIncreased job performance (via increased motivation)
- Better team performance (less jockeying for position or favoritism)
The authors suggest that recent data suggest that recent employee resignations have more to do with lack of relationships than financial reasons. With the overall increase in burnout and decrease in employee engagement, it seems highly plausible.
Let’s be honest, when was the last time you felt motivated in a toxic environment?
How Can We Retain our Talent?
Of the things that keep employees satisfied and loyal are:
- A Sense of Belonging
- Feeling Valued by Leaders
- Caring & Trusting Coworkers
The last time you made a career change, what was your reason? What about colleagues or friends? Even if the actual reason may be related to a new opportunity, chances are, one of the items above was possible a root cause.
If you are starting to lose talent – could you do an audit to determine what type of environment you have?
Of the 3 items above could have possibly been the concern of resigning employees?
Really dig deep – don’t rely on the surface level, “I had another great opportunity”. It may be true, but if flexibility, trust, psychological safety and growth opportunities aren’t present, that may not be the real reason.
Compassion vs. Empathy
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary these are defined as:
Compassion – sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
Empathy – understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience
According to this article — think of empathy as compassion in action. It’s the desire to help that makes compassion action oriented – and allows employees to feel they are valued (2nd bullet above for Employee Satisfaction).
How are you seeking to understand their needs vs.
asking for performance output alone?
By showing compassion, we can not only help others, but help ourselves. We can actually relieve our own stress by evoking a positive response in our parasympathetic nervous system (BONUS!)
Watch Out for Parochial Empathy
Parochial empathy occurs when compassion is limited to one’s own chosen group of people or employees. This is very similar to “in-group bias” (see The Root, Volume 1, Issue 4: Are you a surface level leader? ). This can not only cause distrust among the “out-group” employees but build a culture of toxicity.
Am I showing compassion to all employees or a select few?
How can I show compassion to a larger part of the organization?
The authors also note that compassion and rudeness are both contagious. Which culture are you or your leaders creating?
A Path Forward
This week, in upcoming 1:1 meetings with your employees, ask how employees are doing and ask what they may need to be their best selves.
If you aren’t having 1:1 meetings regularly with your employees – START now.
Work with your HR Business partner to understand the rationale behind recent departures. Look for key themes (spoken and unspoken).
With the greater feeling of burnout and decreased employee engagement, a few small steps can help bring awareness to energy sucking behavior or processes that exist. Determining these, you can improve business and morale. (See: The Root. Vol 2, Issue 2 – Want Better Metrics? Ask Your Employees How)
Compassion is important for leading and building high performance teams and organizations. In today’s work environment, it’s no longer a nice to have soft-skill.
Additional reading on Compassionate Leadership can be found at:Compassion in the Workplace: 9+ Examples & Tips for Leaders (positivepsychology.com)
Continue to do great things!
As you wrap up 1Q2023, send a thank you note to someone at work and acknowledge a recent contribution they made.
Also – on those sunny winter days, take a walk, breath in the fresh air and remember why the work you do is so meaningful to others.
Do amazing things,
Kathleen
