In our second breakfast session with Unleashed our panel discussed compassionate leadership. Luke, Mo’s CEO, caught up with Asha (who has a background in Neuroscience) and Ginni, who are both People and Culture Specialists at Unleashed to discuss the importance of compassionate leadership. They kicked off by discussing the role of emotion in the workplace and how it is changing over time. Traditionally, emotion has been disassociated from the workplace as it was thought to have a negative impact on rational decision making. However, organisations are beginning to embrace the idea that emotion, decision making, and the workplace are inherently interlinked. An example of this is the growing importance of the psychological contract and an employee’s need for more than just legal terms and conditions.
Why is compassionate leadership important now?
The panel also discussed the different factors that have made compassionate leadership an important topic. Unleashed noted how organisations have the ability to measure different employee metrics, such as employee engagement, and how they can understand what their employees are looking for in their role. They also noted that candidates from different generations have different needs and that leadership styles have changed to recognise this.
What do exceptional leaders need to do to unlock their potential?
The panel discussed how traditional leadership is no longer suitable in today’s environment of creativity and innovation. Unleashed suggested that leaders can unlock their potential by understanding that there is more than one way to lead and they should take a test and learn approach to understand what works well. Unleashed also suggested that leaders need to practice self-reflection and take on negative feedback. Although these practices can often be difficult and they require leaders to face their weaknesses and feel vulnerable, they allow leaders to transform their approach into a stronger and more compassionate one.
One of our attendees asked how often organisations are discussing compassionate leadership and emotion within the workplace. Our panel identified that although these are not traditional HR topics, there is a growing focus on them. Unleashed identified that People teams are focusing on data, psychology and neuroscience more often and they are identifying practices that have a positive impact on their people. They also identified that the best businesses are often led with compassion as they understand that by looking after their people they are looking after their bottom line.
Our next session with Unleashed will take place on the 5th of August at 8:30am. Luke will be joined by Ginni and Tom and they’ll be discussing remote-employee engagement.
