The Traits & Benefits of Compassionate Leadership in Higher Education

I transitioned into higher education after my military career. As such, I’ve had an opportunity to observe many leadership styles and the making of great leaders. In all of my travels and interactions, I’ve come to value the compassionate leadership approach at the top of my list. Higher education is a people-oriented field. It is relationship-based more than many other industries. And when dealing with people at any level, compassion is necessary. I dare to go as far as saying without compassion, our leadership may not be as effective as we’d like to believe. In this article, I will share a few traits of compassionate leaders. I will also identify some of the benefits that come along with practicing compassionate leadership.

Traits

• Open Communication

Compassionate, effective leadership is not just about what we say; it is also about how we listen. As leaders, we don’t know everything. Open communication helps to close that gap. When we create a space for open communication to occur between us and our teams (and students), a safe space of understanding is built. Rather than listening to respond, compassionate leadership listens to understand. Compassionate leadership makes room for others to share their knowledge, experience, and opinions. It does not yield to the temptation to monopolize meetings and conversations. Instead, compassionate leadership yields to an ebb and flow, an exchange of information.

• Removes Barriers and Bridges Gaps

Compassionate leaders seek to remove the barriers faced by a team. For barriers preventing productivity, compassionate leaders are first aware that the barriers exist. This can come through a variety of ways including, but not limited to, open communication that allows team members to share what they’re facing. Likewise, compassionate leadership also bridges the gap between teams — communication, access, knowledge. By removing barriers and bridging gaps, the journey to success is more direct.

• Expresses Gratitude

Question for you. When was the last time someone expressed appreciation for something you did? Now, the same question in reverse. When was the last time you expressed gratitude to your team members or students for something they did? If we’re honest, we all want to feel appreciated for the work that we do. We want to know that we are not overlooked or discarded, even if we operate in a support role. Compassionate leadership allows us to bring this awareness and desire to our work. When we express gratitude and appreciation, we are bringing kindness into the space. When team members feel appreciated, organizations can accomplish great things.

Other traits of compassionate leaders include self-awareness, self-compassion, and continuous learning. Compassionate leaders are people-oriented and rely more on their influence instead of authority to reach desired outcomes.

Benefits

As we look at compassionate leadership, it is important that we not just define what it is and how it looks. We have to acknowledge its benefits. Among the benefits of compassionate leadership are reduction in turnover, encouragement of collaboration, and strengthening of team commitments.

• Reduces turnover

There’s a quote that people share frequently on social media that says, “people don’t leave bad organizations, they leave bad leaders.” The accuracy of this statement isn’t limited to just corporate settings but also holds true within the higher education space. When people are leaving our courses, programs and teams, as compassionate leaders we are urged to step back and consider whether our leadership style had any impact on their decision. Chances are if we are leading with compassion we already have some sense of connection to our team members and we are not caught off guard by their decision to leave. This includes the self-awareness trait that I mentioned earlier in the text. Simply put, our leadership style has the ability to make people leave and to make people stay.

• Encourages collaboration

Compassion leads to trust. Trust leads to relational transparency. Relational transparency leads to efficiency. When individuals are in trusting environments, communication flows with ease. As a result, friction is reduced and productivity is increased. Individuals are more willing to collaborate with others that they feel communicate well versus working within a setting that always feels tense, or where miscommunication is common.

Compassion leads to trust. Trust leads to relational transparency. Relational transparency leads to efficiency.

• Strengthens commitment

Compassionate leadership inspires people to feel more connected to each other and to causes. This leadership style also lends itself to more creativity and contributions. The factors often play a role in the commitment an individual has to an organization. By showing our teams and students that we care for them too, we are developing relationships of mutual respect. We touched briefly on using gratitude to let team members know they are appreciated. With this sense of being valued coupled with knowing they are cared for by leadership, individuals will more often than not commit to the organization at deeper levels. They feel empowered, leading them to become the champions of change and success within the organization.

While the jury may be out for some people regarding compassionate leadership, I stand in the belief that compassion is absolutely necessary to be effective. As I think about my own circumstances and situations, I have to express gratitude for those that used compassion as a guide for how they interacted with me. Similarly, I have to wonder how things in my life would have turned out differently if the persons in authority that lacked compassion had responded differently. In the higher education space, we have the choice to lead with compassion, or not. Understanding some of what compassionate leadership looks like along with the possible benefits allows us to make an informed choice. So, colleagues, I ask you today will you choose to lead with compassion?