Special Series: The Call for Greater Compassion at Work and in Business

“Compassion Counts!” wrote Sandra Miralles Armenteros and she’s correct, of course, as human beings emotionally, psychologically crave it. It’s not readily available at work and in business though for everyone and that’s an issue worth talking about.

Before talking about the sources Communication Intelligence found to converse on the topic, let’s take a relatively quick look at what Miralles Armenteros wrote about the topic.

“Compassion is a multi-part process that involves a felt and enacted desire to alleviate suffering. It… involves: (1) noticing the suffering of others, (2) making meaning of suffering in a way that contributes to a desire to alleviate it, (3) feeling empathic concern for the people suffering, and (4) taking action to alleviate suffering in some manner (Dutton et al., 2014). Therefore, compassion could be defined as an interpersonal process involving the noticing, feeling, sensemaking, and acting that alleviates the suffering of another person (Dutton et al., 2014).”

Let’s also take a quick look at was written in the research “Compassion at Work” by Jane E. Dutton, Kristina M. Workman and Ashley E. Hardin.

“Loss and pain that induce suffering are inevitable (Harvey, 2001) but understudied features of organizational life (Frost et al., 2000; Kanov et al., 2004). We spend the greater part of our waking hours at work. It is wishful thinking to imagine that suffering—an important part of the human condition—could remain separate from this immense investment of time and energy. Indeed, human pain and grief is an everyday and pervasive experience for people inside organizations (Dutton & Chapter 1 [6] Workman, 2011). Suffering could spring from many sources outside and within organizations (Lilius et al., 2008).

“Leaders should strive to exhibit behavior in line with promoting compassion: treating individuals as whole people who carry emotions into the workplace and display them (Dutton et al. 2006), encouraging permeable work and life boundaries (Lilius et al. 2011), and facilitating high-quality relationships among employees (Dutton et al. 2006). Alternatively, leaders could work to implement practices that support compassion—for example, by using selection and socialization practices, employee support practices, or other practices that foster noticing, feeling, sensemaking, and acting in ways that foster compassion.”

I will speculate that most people would agree.

In this Special Series, here are the sources who were interviewed:

Gerald Suarez, Professor of the Practice in Systems Thinking and Design at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business

He talks about the very real benefits of a compassionate work environment and culture and takes us on a deep dive on what it looks like and how to build it. Look at what he says about how compassion helps your people weather difficult situations, what emerges when compassion is absent or of low quality and when specifically it needs to be present (it might surprise you).

Why Specifically Compassion is a Core Need and Helpful Leadership Asset

Land Bridgers, CEO of Integrated Financial Group

He details why compassion matters so much to him as a leader and how he makes sure it is practiced inside his firm and outside of it because he realizes the costs otherwise.

Protective Qualities of Compassion in the Workplace and Business

Terry M. Isner, Owner and CEO of Jaffe

Compassion has obvious value, is simple to create within an environment and says it is best achieved as a team. It also reveals something clear and meaningful, saying something about leadership and an organization.

Compassion Creates Connections Which is Gold

Joyce Gioa, President and CEO of The Herman Group

She believes compassion can be something very special for leaders and organizations. They just need to realize what that is and the risks if they don’t make it a skillful, practiced standard. She has a suggestion for driving it’s practice and also shares a personal story that showed her how she was not as once aware and skilled as she is now.

Competitive Advantage of Compassion in Your Organization and How to Achieve It

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I would like to thank the generous sources listed above that gave of their time, energy, focus and mind to communicate intelligently with me on such an important, evergreen topic.

If we can bring ourselves to become more compassionate at work and in business, and value people, their concerns and suffering more, imagine what transformation could surely develop within organizations and business interactions. Imagine the professional relationship quality possible.

The bar right now is low, too low. It wouldn’t take that much to significantly raise it.