Archive - December 2025

Compassion isn't always easy

For Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, wisdom and compassion need to be combined if optimal leadership is to be possible.  Compassionate leadership boosts employee engagement, satisfaction, and well-being, leading to higher productivity, better retention, and improved financial performance, by fostering trust, collaboration, and psychological safety.   However, it can be difficult to be compassionate as a leader or as a colleague, particularly when another individual’s behaviour or speech evokes our fear of being harmed or hurt (or worse) on a personal or community basis, when that behaviour or speech means we feel under attack or it conflicts with our deeply-held values, or when we feel that the compassion we’re showing in such a situation is met with resistance.  There is considerable resource to call on when we struggle with compassion: being fully present, respecting ancestry, being curious, exercising tough compassion and withdrawing.