Collaboration and The Rise of Compassionate Leadership: Should You Be Cruel to Be Kind?

There's a powerful link between productivity and what has been identified as "compassionate leadership" in organisations, observes Christina Boedker, a lecturer in accounting at the Australian School of Business and leader of a major business research study that looks at the links between leadership and organisational performance.

The single greatest influence on profitability and productivity within an organisation, according to the research project – which to date has taken in data from more than 5600 people in 77 organisations – is the ability of leaders to spend more time and effort developing and recognising their people, welcoming feedback, including criticism, and fostering co-operation among staff.

Out of all of the various elements in a business, the ability of a leader to be compassionate – that is, "to understand people's motivators, hopes and difficulties and to create the right support mechanism to allow people to be as good as they can be" – has the greatest correlation with profitability and productivity, Boedker observes. "It's about valuing people and being receptive and responsive to criticism."

The findings correlate with the theory recently advanced by Geoff Aigner, director of Social Leadership Australia and adjunct faculty member in AGSM Executive Programs at the Australian School of Business. Aigner's thought-provoking book, Leadership Beyond Good Intentions: What It Takes To Really Make A Difference asserts that good management is ultimately an act of "compassion". While not a word typically associated with organisational leadership, Aigner suggests, compassion in this context means taking responsibility for the growth and development of others, "something that should be every leader's goal".

"Without this motivation we are on our own with the power we have rather than using it to benefit our world and work. Without this motivation we're not really leading," Aigner points out.

Compassion vs. Kindness

In everyday life, people typically confuse compassion with kindness, argues Aigner, who consults to organisations including the Australian Human Rights Commission, National Australia Bank, NSW Health and the NSW Department of Family & Community Services.

"There is a point that all managers face, wanting to be nice to people, but also having an organisational purpose," Aigner says. "I have often seen leaders getting stuck trying to balance the two, either being too hard or too soft in their approaches." He acknowledges that "taking responsibility for organisational systems and the people in them can be overwhelming, tiring or frightening" for managers.

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One example is the common dilemma when a manager is reluctant to tell a subordinate that they are not performing because that person is perceived to be fragile – "they may come from a minority group or be difficult to deal with", suggests Aigner. But for a manager faced with this situation, to stick his or her head in the sand is counter-productive, he says. "Whether the reluctance to address the performance issue is due to kindness (or fear), failure to address the real issue actually blocks the under-performing person's growth and the system is damaged."

Boedker agrees. "Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind," she says. "Getting people where they want to go will sometimes involve hard conversations. Many managers don't like having these conversations but to be compassionate – effective as a manager and leader – they must have them."

A surprising outcome of Boedker's research is the finding that, out of four levels of leadership from the executive level through middle management to frontline managers, it's the lowest level of leaders that drives a company's profitability. Perhaps, Boedker surmises, this is because frontline managers are more customer-facing than others and therefore have a lot more impact.

"Sometimes the assumption is that leadership is only at the elite level and that leadership development should concentrate on the executive team," Boedker says. "But leadership exists at all levels and in reality frontline managers tend to supervise more people and therefore can have a far greater impact. And compassion is a two-way thing. It flows from the top down but also, importantly, from the bottom up. In other words, hard conversations must be initiated by all staff, including subordinates who can give their bosses valuable feedback because all leaders need compassion to achieve personal growth and be the best they can be."

Facts About Leadership

The research results produced by Boedker and her team make clear the value of managers who show compassion. In high-performing workplaces, as opposed to the organisations in which productivity and profitability are below average, the following statistics were revealed:

• leaders spend more time and effort managing their people (29.3% higher)
• managers have clear values and practice what they preach (25.7% higher)
• senior people give employees opportunities to lead work assignments and activities (22.9% higher)
• management encourages employee development and learning (21.1% higher)
• leaders welcome criticism and feedback as learning opportunities (20.4% higher)
• managers give increased recognition and acknowledgement to employees (19% higher)
• leaders foster involvement and co-operation amongst employees (18% higher)
• management communicates a clear vision and goals for the future (17.9% higher)
• managers are innovative and encourage staff to think about problems in new ways (16.5% higher)

Applying Power Positively

For an organisation to perform well, all managers or leaders must show great compassion. But how do they activate compassion, asks Aigner, when many management issues stem from the underuse – or misuse – of the power that the position offers them?

Rather than focusing on a certain style of leadership, Aigner believes the real issue for managers is in how they use their power and how power manifests; both are useful to think about in terms of becoming a compassionate leader. "Maybe we need to reclaim the word ‘leadership', which is unashamedly about making progress for the systems we are operating. We need to ask how to use our power as individuals responsibly. Using power responsibly makes us compassionate," he says.

"In organisations where leaders do not own their power, there is little compassion. Paradoxically, managers who are bullying and heavy-handed tend to think they don't have any power or rank. Early in my career as a younger manager, I think I was pretty heavy-handed. I was not the subordinate anymore and I needed to take responsibility for that," recalls Aigner, who began his career in the transport industry before undertaking an MBA and becoming a consultant. "The successful CEOs I meet understand the power they have. They're not shirking it. They understand power is a tool that can be useful for other people and for organisational development."

Aigner also identifies a problem that seems endemic to the local culture. Australia generally has an adolescent relationship to power – "we are either attacking it or seducing it" – and this presents challenges for leaders, he observes.

Aigner believes greater leadership development is required at all levels of organisations. To bring on compassionate leadership, managers need to take the first often awkward step of understanding themselves and the power they exercise. Only then can change occur, because compassionate leaders invariably are aware of their own human failings, he says.

Beyond the hierarchical power that's handed to managers through the organisational structure, Aigner suggests that power manifests in the workplace in a multitude of ways. "There's informal power via reputation, connections and unearned rank that may be attributed to gender, race, education, class, culture, birthplace, sexuality … There's also psychological rank from life experiences, confidence, overcoming hardships and experience of loving environments," he notes.

In recent years, working across all sectors, Aigner insists he's noticed that Australian managers and executives often are scared of engaging in a deeper conversation about how they exercise power and their own capacity for leadership. "But you only have to scratch the surface to see a real desire to do the job well and make organisations more responsible, more useful and more effective, and for people to reach their full potential," he says. "I have seen a real desire to leave a legacy of more than just this year's financial statement. And this is a great and admirable dream."

•   protection of followers from all threats. Such protection should cover, the book suggested, threats both external and internal to the organisation, and threats from the followers' own behaviours and ignorance. I have found this advice one of the most valuable ideas I have ever encountered.

Unfortunately, I do not recall the name of the book.

Anyway, one of the implications of this particular idea is that lower-level managers can indeed have a huge impact of an organisation's performance. I would argue, however, that is not because the managers there are distinctively 'customer focused' (as Boedker suggests) but rather because they are more likely than senior managers to encounter 'external threats' (e.g. irrate or unreasonable customers), and hence have greater opportunity to be visibly protective of their subordinates. via knowledge.asb.unsw.edu.au

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Jim Woods is about helping companies and people engage innovate and grow in all the areas important to them. Jim is a professional speaker, author, coach, and strategy consultant based in Colorado Springs, Co. Follow Jim on Twitter @innothinkgroup, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/InnoThink Group or check out his company website http://innothinkgroup.com for more tips and strategies effective leadership, engaged employees, increase growth, and customer effectiveness through innovation. To arrange for Jim to consult or speak at your event email Jim.

Viral Mehta: Servant Leadership: Helping People Come Alive

In an ancient parable, three masons are sitting in a row, all chipping away at large blocks of stone. A woman observing them is curious about what they're up to. She asks the first man what he's doing, to which he responds, "I'm chipping away at this block of stone." Indeed, she thinks. She questions the second man similarly, who says, "I'm working to feed my family." Also true, reflects the woman. Finally, she questions the third mason, who responds, "I'm helping to build a beautiful cathedral."

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It's a powerful perspective -- holding within it a value for collaboration, agency, creativity, and meaning. What if we all could see our work in that way? What if our organizations supported us in holding that perspective, and to go one step further, how can we create institutions that release these core values? In his seminal 1970 essay "The Servant as Leader," Robert Greenleaf coined the term "servant leader" to describe someone who has that interest. For such a person, "It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."

A servant leader -- one who wants to serve first and lead second -- strives to create a work environment in which people can truly express these deepest of inner drives. Servant leadership entails a deep belief that people are the greatest asset any organization has, and to nurture their individual growth becomes the basis for all organizational development. That growth goes far beyond the limited dimension of financial benefit -- it dives into our core motivations as people.

In his book Drive, best-selling author Dan Pink talks about the evolution in our understanding of what really motivates people, especially in our professional lives. According to Pink, the latest behavioral science research points to three key drivers: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Another way to frame this is empowerment, perfectibility, and purpose, and servant leaders endeavor to create a culture that fosters each of these three intrinsic motivations:

Empowerment:

People want to be engaged and also have some level of control over their environment. A servant leader recognizes that the people doing the work generally have the best ideas about how to improve the processes they participate in. Through tools like rapid improvement events and PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) suggestion systems, servant leaders practice participatory decision-making, empowering employees to be innovators and co-creators in positive change. Such leaders are also enablers; they spend a significant amount of time at the workplace, making direct observations, and then striving to create systemic improvements that add value to the work of their employees.

For a concrete example of this kind of engagement, in "Improving Healthcare Using Toyota Lean Production Methods," Robert Chalice reports that Toyota Corporation employees globally generate 2 million ideas a year. And they come from all over -- more than 95% of the workforce contributes these suggestions, with each person submitting over 30 ideas each. Even more importantly, over 90% of these ideas are implemented. Leaders who understand how to unleash this kind of creativity build systems that support idea generation. But this kind of empowerment is also grounded. Servant leaders promote learning by doing and testing iteratively in a scientific way, and they demonstrate accountability. It's a great example of assuming value in all people, which soon translates into a scientific, transparent system for everyday improvement, which in turn fosters a culture of continuous perfection.

Perfectibility:

Perfect is a verb -- and every person can tap into an intrinsic drive toward perfection. A carpenter can strive to be a perfect craftsman, a nurse looks to provide perfect care at the bedside, and Michael Jordan was known to inexorably seek the perfect shot. The role of servant leadership is to create a culture and context in which that inherent drive toward improvement is channeled in a way that benefits the whole. If people are engaged in perfection as a journey and not a destination, then they are constantly looking for ways to innovate.

This brand of innovation follows a very conscious design philosophy -- one that is inherently collaborative. All of us are smarter than any of us, as the adage goes. Far from being a cold, individual, strictly rational process, servant leaders design highly collaborative systems that balance the scientific method with in-depth engagement of people from all levels. They also actively break down silos and promote a shared view across functions and departments: in healthcare (where I currently work), that view is: "how can we maximize the real value to the patient, and as they move along the care delivery stream, what improves their well-being?" In that sense, servant leaders have a worldview of interdependence, and recognize that they have to own the entire value stream (including suppliers and partners), on behalf of the patient.

Purpose:

In the words of Picasso, "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away." In healthcare -- and especially in serving the underserved population -- it becomes all the more important (and necessary) to create structures that enable us to give in concert. Atul Gawande, the famed surgeon-author, uses a sports analogy to urge modern healthcare (though it's easily generalizable) to evolve from "cowboy medicine" to "pitcrew medicine," referring to the unbelievable preparation, synchronization, and seamless way in which a pit-crew services a race-car in the thick of intense competition. If a pit-crew can deliver flawless results in less than 12 seconds, imagine what a team of people can do longterm in the service of better care for all.

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At the root of such collaboration is still each person's own connection to greater purpose. Civil Rights leader Howard Thurman said, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Perhaps that is the essence of servant leadership: to facilitate people in coming alive. Interestingly enough, when we support people in tapping into that part of themselves that is most alive, then their most selfless motivations surface. So people who've come alive are naturally amenable to working in a collective.

In this way, by supporting people in finding purpose, servant leaders inspire true, collective service. And it's all done invisibly, such that people can truly feel that they are each "helping to build a beautiful cathedral." In the ancient words of Lao Tzu, "The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, All the people say, 'We ourselves have achieved it!'" via huffingtonpost.com

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