In addition, studies find that compassionate leaders are perceived as stronger and more competent. Putting your weight on either end throws everything off balance. How can managers and leaders support staff wellbeing in the NHS? Compassionate leadership involves four behaviours (Atkins and Parker 2012). In quadrant 3, bottom left, leaders are ineffective and indifferent, operating in a mode that is the opposite of mindful. Professor Don Berwick, Professor Michael West, Sam Allen, Prerana Issar. Summary. In light of this, its imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. How can managers and leaders support staff wellbeing in the NHS? Therefore, leadership is inherent within us, and in my opinion, the degree to which we tap into this gift and expand our capacity starts with self-awareness. In my experience, when you provide criticism without constructive avenues for improvement, your teams trust and motivation can decline. That is compassion. Few took long-term action. Money is wasted every day going through self invented hoops to keep the boxes ticked instead of actually doing the job you are trained to do. And the evidence from research is clear that compassionate leadership is the vital cultural element for innovation in organisations. Compassionate leadership increases staff engagement and satisfaction, resulting in better outcomes for organisations including improved financial performance (Dawson and West 2018). Feel their challenges. But, in the days that follow, something else has captivated our attention, and the refugee crisis is all but forgotten. Compassionate leadership means creating the conditions through consistently listening, understanding, empathising and helping to make it possible to have tough performance management and tough conversations when needed. As a leader, we often need to consider the different perspectives and concerns of multiple people at the same time. This involves taking thoughtful and intelligent action to support individuals and teams. Empathy in leadership can drain us. The four behaviours of compassionate leadership. A year into Steves strategy, employees put forth a great effort, and the organization increased its revenue. You cannot effectively lead someone you don't understand. A global pandemic, Depression-level unemployment, civil and political unrest from New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it feels as if the world as we know it is faltering. Shelley Row, a professional engineer and former transportation executive, believes that caring for ones employees, while admirable, does have its drawbacks. Lets consider the hypothetical case of an organization struggling to expand: Up until now, revenue has soared into the millions, customer satisfaction is high, employee turnover is low, and the company recognizes double-digit net profits year over year. Caring too much, when it leads to lack of decision-making, is a form of leadership over-functioning. No one intentionally chooses suffering. In truth: Compassionate leaders are finely attuned to the feelings of others and tend to be conscientious and thorough. This helps staff feel safe to talk about their errors and near misses, to address concerns about work overload, to talk about worries over lack of competence, and to call out bullying, harassment and discrimination, all of which leads to health care team innovation and effectiveness, as Amys research demonstrates. House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee 2021. As the tragedy and hardship of our current context unfold, companies are awakened to the greater value in caring about peoples wellbeing. Be willing to acknowledge your fears. Dedicated data analysts and researchers at Open Lab at Newcastle University supported measurement and evaluation of the data within the patient and staff experience team. Apr 5, 2018. Moreover, misplaced concern and worry can overload leaders. I sense a calling. The other group was instructed to listen objectively and not engage emotionally. That can only come through releasing staff from the rigidities of bureaucracies, command and control hierarchies, and relentless top-down scrutiny and control. Lacking both compassion and wisdom, these leaders appear to their followers as uncaring and unprofessional. At a time of crisis for the health and care system, how can managers and leaders in the NHS be supported to line manage and lead well? Why does compassionate leadership matter? In mastering this skill, you must remember that shifting away from . I believe that until leaders are willing to open their hearts and dig into the humanity of this work, they wont make significant progress in developing employees and finding common ground that builds trust, cultivates critical thinking and inspires innovation. Believing that simply assuming a leadership position made him a great leader proved to be a damaging misconception and everyone paid for it. If Leaders are to model the way, then this is the way. Jennifer Odell explores the impact of leadership on the wider team An awareness of the impact of leadership is central to the challenge of understanding and upholding the delivery of compassionate patient care. Thats where your responsibility ends. But in my experience of teaching leaders how to show compassion, Ive found there are a few misconceptions that surround this style of leadership: Misconception No. Leaders not able to recognise this will continue to fall back on the tools and techniques that created the systemic issues we face today. Disadvantages of compassion Unfortunately, there also are several potential disadvantages. Understandably, you might be concerned about the employees reaction, especially if the two of you have a history of contentious conversations. So leave that decision in the employees hands. We should all strive to do these hard things in a human way. If your wisdom is strong but you still need to develop more compassion, here are a few things you can do: If your compassion is strong but you would like to increase your wisdom, here are a few helpful strategies: There will be many hard days, weeks, and months ahead. "We also don't want the rest of the team to absorb all the problems when one team member isn't accountable," says McKenna. creating supportive leadership cultures to deliver on the NHS long-term plan, To the moon and back: Don Berwick on politics, leadership and learning from NASA. Update my browser now, Home One study has suggested that 56 per cent of health care providers dont think they have the time for compassion because they need to focus on other tasks including administration, reducing costs and regulation (Reiss et al 2012). Through it all, our spirit is being tested. Its a gift, talent and skill. We're more likely to kill and eat the chicken with its small, cold eyes and feathers. No one is immune. We didnt evolve from the laid-back apes. Many national health and care organisations in the UK now recognise the importance of their own compassionate leadership in helping to tackle issues that undermine compassionate leadership including the burdens of excessive data reporting, bureaucracy, and misaligned policies. Rows book, Think Less, Live More: Lessons from a Recovering Over-Thinker, explores the ways in which leaders might over-function, meaning they assume more control or responsibility over a situation than is required. I started a conversation, he shaking all the time, but could speak with difficulty. Strangely enough, the act of caring, when taken too far, is a control issue. It can be exhausting and impair judgment. By wisdom, we mean leadership competence, a deep understanding of what motivates people and how to manage them to deliver on agreed priorities. Instead, what leaders need to focus on is how hybrid work arrangements will serve customer needs. At a time of crisis for the health and care system, how can managers and leaders in the NHS be supported to line manage and lead well? But Ive observed that this view of leadership isnt very common, as some people today still view it as a position of authority that comes with a title and power over others. Are You Too Trusting? Acting without an understanding of root causes can often actually make matters worse. When leaders are compassionate, employees tend to be more trusting and have a greater commitment to the company. Released, their motivation and creativity will ensure commitment to purpose and performance. You can only motivate and influence a person when you know how they feel. Related: 3 Simple Ways to Increase Empathy at Work. Compassionate leadership creates the conditions where the collective good the needs of patients and communities and staff wellbeing and development are prioritised over individual agendas, regardless of status, aggression, or undermining. They may not get the promotion they wanted. Within health and care systems, too often performance problems are not directly addressed and so-called wicked problems are avoided or hidden (Dixon-Woods et al 2014). Yet we discriminate. Hence, it might be possible to face such problems as 'compassion fatigue', which can lead to anxiety and depression. Really resonated with me. Suzie Bailey and Michael West examine why compassionate leadership matters now, in a time of global crisis, more than ever before and how leaders can best support those health workers and carers risking their own health and wellbeing in the fight against Covid-19 (coronavirus). Compassionate leadership in times of crisis is imperative for leaders to be equipped to deal with human challenges as a priority. There are many reasons why quality improvement programmes fail, however the lack of engagement of clinicians and their resistance to change are amongst . Caring too much, when it leads to lack of decision-making, is a form of leadership over-functioning. Increased work-related stress and burnout has been reported in nursing. It begins with self-compassion so that by attending to yourself, understanding the challenges you face in your own work (and life more generally), empathising or caring for yourself, and then taking wise action to help yourself, you are able to stay close to the core values that give our lives and work meaning compassion, wisdom, courage, justice we are able to have deeper, more authentic and more effective interactions with all those we work with and offer care for. In my opinion, leadership is a human capacity, not a position. Research into the neurology of empathy, however, provides a more nuanced picture -- at least from a leadership perspective. Three key themes related to compassion-giving obstacles emerged across countries: 1. related to the managers' personal characteristics and experiences; 2. system-related; and 3. staff-related. It begins with self-compassion' then extend to those around you. It requires a sustained shift in mindset and behaviours of people working in health and care to deliver and sustain this culture change. The NHS is facing a crisis in staffing with large gaps in the nursing and medical workforces in both primary and secondary care. Compassionate leaders aren't passive and do not accept excuses. NHS should create small autonomies to each department, each hospital, creating the premises to self-found and self-manage resources and generate profit, and at the end of the year to receive new financial resources based on the pertinent audits. I fear you miss the point compassion is essential leadership behaviour needed to make tough decisions and choose appropriate actions of innovation and transformation. Research by Paul Bloom, professor of cognitive science and psychology at Yale University and author of Against Empathy, discovered that empathy can distort our judgment. The endless remote top-down plans often fail because they ignore the reality of day to day care. 2: Compassionate leaders focus on making everyone happy. Studies find that humans empathize more easily with people similar to themselves. Is the NHS really full of overpaid pen-pushers? Learn about theses six powerful time management strategies you can implement in a hybrid or remote workplace. The skills of compassionate leadership help in the management of performance problems through encouraging the collective responsibility of teams for solving them, helping to promote a culture of learning, where risk-taking (within safe boundaries) is encouraged and where it is accepted that not all innovation will be successful (West and Markiewicz 2016). Research shows that compassionate leadership has wide-ranging benefits for both staff and organisations. Often these fears are limiting beliefs weve imagined. Meeting peoples core needs at work is important in supporting their wellbeing and motivation. I find it frustrating at times to talk about clinical rationale with people who lack common sensea prime example - think that a hip replacement can't be done to 45 years old individual under NHS because is too young!! We do cost money and yet not that much in the scheme of things. They step forward into opportunities disguised as problems. This is a masterpiece. Engaged teams feel valued and empowered and their members can independently undertake additional tasks out of empathy, care and compassion for others (Tsai and Wu, 2010). Listening is probably the most important leadership skill and compassionate leaders take time to listen to the challenges, obstacles, frustrations and harms colleagues experience as well as listening to accounts of their successes and joys (West 2021). Its as if the leader has assumed responsibility for an employees reaction to the situation, thereby transferring who owns (or controls) the emotion from the employee to the manager. At some point, it will boil over. By Michael West, Suzie Bailey - 28 May 2019. Communicate with your team clearly and with confidence and optimism, regardless of how frustrating things might be. Supporting an employee who has had a death in his family is important, but it's the discipline to check in, repeatedly over time, that makes the real difference. Being aware of these emotions is the first step to managing them. The authors havehave gathered data from 15,000 leaders in more than 5,000 companies that span nearly 100 countries, showing that leaders exhibit four different leadership styles that reflect different mixes of wisdom and compassion, and the lack thereof. Compassion cannot exist in isolation. While there's a widely-held belief that three days a week in the office is the magic number, with a number of large companies adopting it, it's a fundamentally flawed approach. In truth: Compassionate leaders recognize that building relationships and caring about the people within their organizations andtheir well-beingis essential. In the objective group, only one-third of the participants made the same recommendation. How can I help to change things for the better where I work? Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter He was most thankful for me talking to him. Their voices are needed to tell us how care can best be improved as the endless remote top-down plans often fail because they ignore the reality of day to day care. Worthwhile read. Too much empathy in some situations can lead to distress. Simon Newitt outlines the thinking behind The King's Fund's new free online course that aims to do just that. It simply means that you understand how those behaviors arose. Remote Work Skeptics Are Forgetting Their Most Valuable Asset: Their Customers. Most people want to work for a caring boss. Published: January 12, 2016. Notice suffering at work (your own and others), Ask people about suffering, difficulties, challenges, Withhold blame, focus on Whats the learning here?, Be aware of continually changing conditions in yourself and others, Develop empathic listening and tune in to feelings of concern, Direct your efforts towards what is most helpful in alleviating others suffering, Create flexible time to enable others to cope with suffering. Compassion is comprised of four components: (1) awareness of suffering; (2) a connection to the one suffering in a way that makes us feel that they are worthy of our attention; (3) empathy, or feeling within ourselves the experience of the others suffering; and (4) an intention and willingness to act to relieve the suffering. We tend to offer them better assignments and better positions, all unknowingly. A natural human reaction to emotions is to either suppress them or act them out. Related: Use These 7 Emotional Intelligence Tips to Be a Better Leader. Empathy can be a poor moral guide. Not all practitioners want to be managers but at least those who do could be brought back into the decision making picture to guide and help those managers who just dont see what practitioners do. Rather than taking on others' emotions and problems, with compassion you can help them diffuse the issues and move on. Transformational and charismatic leaders are often renowned for their ability to "get the troops fired up." However, emotional leadership has some disadvantages relative to a more even-keeled, disciplined approach. Suzie Bailey and Michael West outline seven key actions leaders can take. Guest host Anna Charles sits down with Professor Don Berwick, President Emeritus at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, to explore his career, the relationship between politics and health, and how to create joy in work. Compassionate leaders dont have all the answers and dont simply tell people what to do, instead they engage with the people they work with to find shared solutions to problems. Your employees reaction is not your responsibility. Then act in the best way you know in the moment. One group was asked to identify with and feel for the boy. It is important not to personalise interactions and think people are getting at you. Related: 3 Tips for Raising Your Kids to Be Empathetic Entrepreneurs. Empathy is the skill of understanding and recognizing others' feelings and perspectives. Her writing and digital training materials help business professionals lead themselves and others towards greater career success. As leaders, empathy may cloud our moral judgment. Do this by becoming aware of the ways you are distracted. This often requires giving tough feedback, making hard decisions that disappoint people, and, in some cases, laying people off. Subscribe for a weekly round-up of our latest news and content. This creates an inclusive, psychologically safe environment in which diversity in all forms is valued and team members can contribute creatively and enthusiastically to team performance. Compassion is the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others. A global pandemic, Depression-level unemployment, civil and political unrest - from New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it feels as if the world as we know it is faltering. The trust used this data to inform an evolving action plan focused on meeting the changing physical, social and emotional wellbeing needs of staff during the peak of the pandemic and beyond. But the authors research has shown thatcompassion on its own is not enough. Painful as it might be to see an employee struggle through a difficult task, theres a learning opportunity available within those challenging times. This results in higher-quality care and higher levels of patient satisfaction (West and Dawson 2012; West et al 2011). Social media offers a great example of this phenomenon. Annual leadership and workforce summit 2024: annual leadership and management summit in July, loss of commitment to purpose and high-quality performance, tough performance management and conversations wont be allowed or will be labelled as bullying, always taking the easy, consensus way forward rather than putting patients and communities first, not being able to challenge the status quo and make the radical changes our patients and communities need. Evidence of the links between psychological safety, supportiveness, positivity, empathy, leadership (in aggregate compassionate leadership) and innovation is deep and convincing. If you would like to learn more about how you can develop your own compassionate leadership practice, The Kings Fund has a free short online course, An introduction to leading with kindness and compassion in health and social care, for anyone working in or interested in health and social care in its broadest sense, regardless of sector, experience or role. Trzeciak and colleagues (2019) make a compelling case for compassionomics, the knowledge and scientific study of the effects of compassionate health care. Our ancestors relied on a constant wariness to avoid the dangers of the wild. Just think of a baby seal with it big round eyes, as opposed to a chicken. 'Compassionate leadership requires huge courage, resilience and belief to be the best that you can be. The most important starting point is compassion a core value of the NHS as a whole and its NHS staff. Michael West and Suzie Bailey dispel five common myths surrounding compassionate leadership and explain how it is essential for alleviating the current workforce crisis. Moreover, considerable research evidence shows that such teams are both more productive and innovative (West and Markiewicz 2016). Compassion is certainly a hallmark of leadership effectiveness. If you are constantly worrying about the possibility that your performance is under scrutiny by those who are not trained in your profession how on earth are you actually able to practice effectively at all. Compassionate leadership ensures a collective focus and a greater likelihood of collective responsibility for ensuring high-quality care. Wisdom in the Workplace is what we advocate. Maybe impossible. Empathy has some pitfalls that every leader should understand. This involves taking time to properly explore and understand the situations people are struggling with. We will not sell or rent your information to anyone. Wise compassionate leadership is the ability to do hard things in a human way. It encourages bias and makes us less effective at making wise decisions. The courage to listen to tough messages from those we lead. You have no control over how your employees will react. Confront reality? Tired of being exhausted: seven key actions for leaders in the NHS workforce crisis, thinking differently about the health and care workforce.