Courageously choosing to leave behind restrictions to “walk on” and explore new ideas, people, and practices that enable you to discover fresh possibilities.
Margaret Wheatley’s concept of “walk out, walk on” resonates deeply with my personal journey.
Walkouts are individuals who courageously choose to leave behind restrictive situations, jobs, relationships, and ideas that confine them. They then “walk on” to explore new ideas, people, and practices that enable them to discover fresh possibilities.
This concept strikes a chord as I enter my second September since walking out of my 20-year career in education. I’m determined to create changes in broken educational systems by emphasizing the fundamental need for compassion and self-compassion in our work-spaces.
As I continue to “walk on” towards these ideas, I’m seeking to understand how to create sustainable changes in work environments.
Compassionate and authentic leadership
My deep dive into leadership literature, particularly compassionate and authentic leadership, has led to more questions than answers about creating sustainable and healthy workplaces.
- Is compassionate leadership the panacea?
- How do we foster psychologically safe work environments?
- What does it take for a leader to learn, understand, and embody the necessary compassion, empathy, and love?
In a recent conversation with Dr. Kristin Neff about her new book on Burnout and Self-Compassion, I realized we’re still amid a global crisis. While it may not be an infectious pandemic, our collective mental health struggles, low energy, cynicism, and ineffectiveness in our work and personal lives have led to a state of ongoing burnout. We all feel it.
Even on my most energized days, the world seems heavy, and my motivation can be clouded by weariness. What will it take for us to create systems and communities that can thrive and flourish, moving us away from the edge of burnout?
Self-compassion is undoubtedly helpful. It reminds us to be mindful of our experiences as we’re feeling them, that we’re not alone in our struggles, and to meet ourselves with warmth, tenderness, care, and fierce love.
But how do we integrate these practices collectively?
How do we step into “Brave Spaces,” as BrenĂ© Brown would say, and give ourselves permission for courageous vulnerability? And what might this look like if our leaders took these steps?
Compassion is a vital component of effective leadership.
Neuroimaging research has shown that people’s brains respond more positively to leaders who demonstrate compassion. Creating a compassionate culture has been linked to lower employee emotional exhaustion (a key element of burnout) and reduced employee absenteeism.
Simon Sinek describes compassionate leadership as focusing less on being “in charge” and more on taking care of those in one’s charge. Numerous studies indicate that leaders prioritizing their employees’ well-being strongly predicts job satisfaction, perceived organizational support, loyalty, trust in the organization, and retention. It’s also associated with improved employee job performance (by boosting motivation) and better team performance.
My hope for the coming years is to discover how we can integrate these practices into our systems and scale them to create safe, resilient, strong, and connected communities and workspaces.
As Wheatley and Frieze suggest in their book, every community has the ingenuity, intelligence, and inventiveness to solve its seemingly insurmountable problems. Perhaps by overcoming our limiting beliefs and adopting more compassionate practices, we can unlock the potential for meaningful and enduring solutions to the challenges we face today.