5 Ways to Become a More Compassionate Leader
2nd Year Teacher Chronicles
Compassionate Leadership
One of the areas that all leaders need to master is becoming more compassionate. As I started my journey as a teacher, I realized that I needed to grow in compassion to effectively help in my area of influence. It was not enough for me to have the logic, education, and expertise to teach, I needed to learn how to be a compassionate leader. Being compassionate is not merely a mindset, but it is a call to action. Being compassionate means having sympathy for others and being willing to help them in their suffering. The world needs leaders that take action to dismantle the inequities in place that hinder people’s quality of life.
5 Ways to Become a More Compassionate Leader
1. Listen to Understand People’s Stories
Compassionate leaders listen more than they talk. Communication with the actual citizens around you is the gateway to becoming familiar with the issues plaguing a group of people. You have to challenge yourself to allow people to share their history with you uninterrupted. Before creating any programs, policies, or organizations, you have to know the heartbeat of the people that you serve.
2. Stop Making Generalizations
When we make generalizations, we label people before getting to know them. We have to interact with people on a case-by-case basis. Our experience with one individual does not mean that we will have the same experience with others. Comparing situations and places with past experiences hinders us from truly getting to know people and leading with compassion.
3. Be Willing to Give Up Comforts
Are you willing to give up your own comforts to help address the needs of the people that you see in pain? Sometimes you cannot wait for a larger entity to come in to help. You are going to be challenged to use your own life to help build transformation and address the pain that is happening within your area of influence.
4. Become Culturally Competent
Before you travel to any new territory, it is your responsibility to do the necessary research on cultural norms in that society. All places, whether that be a place of work, city, or country have cultural norms. It will benefit you to become more culturally knowledgeable about different places around the world so that you lead from a place of humility.
5. Develop Emotional Intelligence
The first step to compassion is feeling sympathy for others. Emotionally intelligent leaders are not only able to articulate and regulate their own emotions, but they perceive and care about other people’s emotions. When you care about others’ emotions and your own, you are equipped to lead from a place beyond logic, but also love.
