Leadership is hard. How can you balance compassion for your people with effectiveness in getting the job done? A global pandemic, economic volatility, natural disasters, civil and political unrest. From New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it can feel as if the world as we know it is coming apart. Through it all, our human spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it's imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion. But in hard times like these, leaders need to make hard decisions—deliver negative feedback, make difficult choices that disappoint people, and in some cases lay people off. How do you do the hard things that come with the responsibility of leadership while remaining a good human being and bringing out the best in others? Most people think we have to make a binary choice between being a good human being and being a tough, effective leader. But this is a false dichotomy. Being human and doing what needs to be done are not mutually exclusive. In truth, doing hard things and making difficult decisions is often the most compassionate thing to do. As founder and CEO of Potential Project, Rasmus Hougaard and his longtime coauthor, Jacqueline Carter, show in this powerful, practical book, you must always balance caring for your people with leadership wisdom and effectiveness. Using data from thousands of leaders, employees, and companies in nearly a hundred countries, the authors find that when leaders bring the right balance of compassion and wisdom to the job, they foster much higher levels of employee engagement, performance, loyalty, and well-being in their people. With rich examples from Netflix, IKEA, Unilever, and many other global companies, as well as practical tools and advice for leaders and managers at any level, Compassionate Leadership is your indispensable guide to doing the hard work of leadership in a human way.

Compassionate leadership isn’t about being nice; when practiced effectively, it’s a strong leadership style that can elevate your spirits and profits. Compassionate leaders are not weak. They are tough leaders who understand that they can be good to their people and deliver stronger results. In fact, taking care of your people actually leads to better results. In his new book, Donato Tramuto—recognized CEO, business leader, innovator, and philanthropist,—makes the case that compassion is a key leadership principle that • powerfully drives trust, success, and innovation; • raises morale, builds stronger teams, and improves overall performance; • creates sustainable commitment to an organization’s mission and values. Tramuto interviewed nearly 40 successful leaders who practice compassionate leadership and reveals the best strategies from their playbooks. He then combined these interviews with his own insights, numerous studies, and original, qualitative research of 1,500 participants to unleash the measurable data and benefits of compassion in the workplace. Most leaders have an innate desire to be compassionate, but many don't know how to put it into practice. This book shares inspiring stories and actionable examples of how proven leaders have accomplished this and how you can too. The bottom line on bottom lines: compassionate leadership is about better people and better business.

Awaken the power of compassionate leadership The Compassionate Leader's Playbook provides a powerful and pragmatic approach for leaders everywhere who are inspired to build a more compassionate and inclusive world of work, where everyone can thrive, achieve, and stay well. In this important and timely book, Leader, Coach and Founder of The Compassionate Leadership Company, Steven Hargreaves, demonstrates how leading with compassion is great for business, culture, and the bottom line, and how when we lead with compassion everyone benefits. The Compassionate Leader's Playbook is accessible, practical, and full of tools, tips, and insights to support leaders to awaken and leverage the power of compassion. It introduces the reader to the 360° of Compassion Framework(TM). A powerful, holistic framework which the author has developed to identify the values, qualities, skills, and competencies, which are required of leaders and their teams to build and sustain a more compassionate workplace. It is informed by contemporary writing and research into compassion, leadership, wellbeing, and high performing teams, along with the authors own perspective, leadership experience and time he has spent coaching leaders and their teams in how to develop a more relational, connected, collaborative and compassionate approach to their life and work. The framework is also an accountability structure to ensure that the leader, their team, and the wider organisation work in such a way as to honour those values. It provides a solid foundation and guide to leading with compassion. The book explores in depth each of the component parts of the 360° of Compassion Framework - Self-compassion, Attention, Humility, Fairness, Respect, Integrity, Empathy and Courage - to support leaders to tap into and leverage the resources they already have in abundance, whilst helping them generate new insight, perspective, and learning, supporting them to work effectively and with agility within and across these 360° of Compassion, enabling greater performance, productivity, engagement, inclusion and wellbeing across the teams and organisations they lead. The book contains the new 360° of Compassionate Leadership Self-Diagnostic Tool to enable readers to identify where they are on their journey to awaken their own compassion potential, along with what steps can be taken to elevate their leadership to a more compassionate level. The diagnostic process takes the shape of a series of themed self-reflection exercises for the reader to complete, which build by the end of the book into a complete 360° of Compassion Self-Diagnostic(TM). This is designed to help the reader to build self-awareness and to self-assess where they are on their journey towards awakening and optimising their compassion potential. The author believes that the contemporary workplace is one where relationships, connectivity, wellbeing, and purpose now take centre stage and believes it is time for us to seize this moment. For leaders to lead with renewed energy, enhanced kindness, integrity, and empathy. For a more connected, personal, and relational approach to leadership to emerge and become business-as-normal for everyone. The author believes that what people need and want from leadership has changed, and leaders and organisations need to maintain pace with those changes and create the optimal conditions for everyone to be their best and to do their best. This book provides a response to that leadership 'call to action' and to bring compassionate leadership to life as a definable, tangible, and practical approach to the day-to-day leadership of the self and others. To explain why compassion in leadership matters, what compassion is and how leaders can bring it to life in their everyday leadership, in order to enhance the value they bring to a modern, more relational world of work.

In Compassionate Leadership for School Belonging, Kathryn Riley draws on 40 years of international research and professional practice to show how schools can be places of safety and fulfilment, even in the most difficult of circumstances. When belonging is a school’s guiding principle, more young people at all levels experience a sense of connectedness and friendship, perform better academically, and come to believe in themselves; their teachers feel more professionally fulfilled, their families more accepted. The originality of this highly readable book lies in its scope. It offers international analysis from the OECD alongside insights from the author’s extensive research in schools, powerfully supported by observational vignettes and drawings from the children, young people and teachers who have been her co-researchers. The book reveals patterns of dislocation, disaffection and exclusion, and highlights the points of intervention in policy and practice needed across school systems to create the conditions for school belonging. The methodologies, concepts and research tools offered can be used by practitioners and researchers in their own contexts, and to guide school leaders towards creating their own places of belonging. This is an urgent book of hope, offering knowledge so that schools can open up possibilities to all children and young people in an increasingly uncertain world.

Some leaders believe that compassion and mercy have no place in successful business. For others, the case for mercy and compassion sounds good, but they aren’t convinced it’s sustainable in a business climate focused on survival and the bottom line. Lead with Mercy will convince you of the power of mercy in individual and organizational leadership. This is not a theoretical argument: it is a discussion of provable measurable results and positive return on investment. You’ll learn how to earn the right to lead, what it means to be accountable while giving responsibility to others, and how to provide your colleagues with a clear vision of compassion, innovation, and success. The principles of leading with mercy are supported by citations from experts in leadership, business, and psychology. You can learn to lead from the heart while growing a successful, profitable business—are you ready to lead the way to positive change? “This book is an invaluable guide to being a more flexible leader capable of leading the most complex organization in volatile times. Prepare to be challenged and inspired.” –Andrew Neitlich, Founder and Director, Center for Executive Coaching

One of the myths in business is that people resist change. Not everybody resists change. And the ones who do, don't resist the change, but the tensions that come with change. As a consequence, the first step is to see in which vibe an individual or team resides. Is that the negative or neutral vibe then change will usually be considered as negative. If it is the positive or inspiring vibe, then change is welcomed as an opportunity. In the positive and inspiring vibe people are also willing to enthusiastically pursue goals and contribute to the purpose of the organization. The reason that tensions by people in the negative or neutral vibe are considered as negative and why they get stuck in those vibes, is that they don't know how to deal with the tensions. They don't have any tools or techniques at their disposal. The key to successfully working together and reaching the goals of (change) projects is first raise the vibe in the day-to-day operations. And only then implement large or small change projects. The book The Compassionate Leader provides you with the right tools: The D.U.E.T. framework includes techniques to solve the different kinds of tension (practical, personal or interpersonal). As a consequence, the vibe of an individual or team rises automatically. A specific approach for leaders and coaches to facilitate others in this process: Compassionate Leadership. The tools, techniques and insights are presented via the practical case of the fictitious company Gizmo Objects Inc. in which the story of manager Catherine shows how step by step the space is created for the inspiring vibe, where results and well-being reinforce each other. The Compassionate Leader is the fourth book of Jan Vermeiren, who received worldwide recognition with his books Let's Connect! and How to REALLY use LinkedIn. With his current company he supports leaders and coaches to become Compassionate Leaders who guide individuals and teams into the inspiring vibe.

Presenting an outline of the four necessary steps for meeting suffering with compassion, this insightful book shows how to build a capacity for compassion into the structures and practices of an organization. --