4 Reasons Compassion is Now Management’s New Secret Weapon

It’s just grueling. Workplaces across the globe are in crisis and everyone in them can feel it. In these days of COVID-19, the stress in most work settings is at a fever pitch.

But if you work in one of these places I’m guessing you already know that. Especially if you’re a manager.

I’m sure you’ve seen it: as uncertainty reaches new heights, tempers can get short, tolerance can get low, and forgiveness seems to be in short supply.

Is it any surprise that managers are seeking something that will offer them and their people some relief.

And while it may seem counterintuitive, that something may just be compassion.

A growing body of research now shows that management practices rooted in compassion increase overall effectiveness, improve morale, and strengthen worker engagement.

While at the same time researchers are finding what the rest of us have probably known for a long time. Traditional management practices, with their focus on top-down, authoritarian relationships, hinder effectiveness, lower morale, and stifle engagement.

If you’re a manager, here are four reasons you should explore compassion as your new secret weapon:

1. Traditional Command-And-Control Strategies Undermine Efficiency and Erode Morale

Today’s mainstream management practices, with their fixation on regimentation and efficiency, have a long history in global work settings. In the early 20th century an engineer named Frederick Taylor introduced “Scientific Management” a system for maximizing worker output based on authoritarian principles of command-and-control.

Back when it was introduced the newly-industrialized world went crazy over it. With it’s focus on high-pressure strategies for optimizing worker output, Scientific Management was perfect for an economy based on maximizing profits and production efficiency.

These days workplaces are radically different, so you would think that management approaches would have followed suit. But guess what?

Today Scientific Management is considered the forerunner of most modern management practices. Many organizations still hold to the belief that these industrial-age strategies work when it comes to keeping workers on task and increasing efficiency.

Yet, unsurprisingly, a growing body of evidence clearly says otherwise.

For instance, researchers Emma Seppälä and Kim Cameron report that “Although there’s an assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster, what cutthroat organizations fail to recognize is the hidden costs incurred.” These costs include higher health care costs and sick leave, higher turnover, lower engagement, and decreased efficiency.

If this weren’t enough, recent reporting in Harvard Business Review found that managers who put efficiency above people were far less effective than compassionate managers who demonstrated high concern for workers’ wellbeing.

And if that weren’t enough, this same reporting also found that managers who were fixated on efficiency ended up creating “a negative impact on organizational climate and burnout of team members.”

2. Compassionate Management Practices Result In More Resilient Staff

But pointing out the negative consequences of traditional management practices may not be enough. Many managers today would probably argue that an approach rooted in compassion would just encourage staff to become lazy and insubordinate.

Once again, the research now tells us something quite different.

A study by Jane Dutton and colleagues in the CompassionLab at the University of Michigan found that “leaders who demonstrate compassion toward employees foster and individual and collective resilience in challenging times.”

In our current times of upheaval and uncertainty — with no clear end in sight — think about how beneficial it would be to have more resilient staff.

However, the data now tells us that the benefits from compassionate management go far beyond such “soft” measures as worker wellbeing.

3. Compassionate Management Practices Create Bottom Line Benefits

The reality today is that many managers are highly skeptical of any approach that doesn’t improve bottom line results. This is one reason why so many are resistant to improving soft skills and focusing on workplace culture.

However research now shows that compassion-based management practices result in clear improvements to bottom line measures.

Turning again to reporting by Seppälä and Cameron, research now shows when managers employ compassion-based approaches firms achieve “significantly higher levels of organizational effectiveness — including financial performance, customers satisfaction, productivity, and employee engagement.”

4. Compassionate Management Practices Are Critical When Facing A Crisis

So OK, you might think, compassion may indeed have real value. But workplaces across the globe are now facing perhaps the greatest crisis they’ve ever known. Don’t such extreme times call for a greater level of top-down control?

Here again the research shows that compassion-based management is proving more effective than traditional top-down practices.

A recent study by McKinsey and Company found that during times of crisis and upheaval a compassionate-based approach “becomes even more important.”

McKinsey found that for those in positions of authority — and that includes both leaders and managers — “role modeling vulnerability, empathy, and compassion during a crisis has been shown to lower stress…while also improving team goal achievement and productivity.”

Getting Started Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult

Clearly the evidence in favor of compassion-based approaches is overwhelming. And it’s growing every day.

But where to start? And how?

Transitioning to compassion-based practices can’t just happen overnight. But starting doesn’t have to be difficult. The process can begin small and build over time.

But everything begins with increasing awareness. This is why having the support of a coach or a trainer may help.

But if you’re a manager, you can start now. Look to your closest workplace relationships and think about where you can make small adjustments.

Or better yet, find a like-minded colleague and share this article. Begin the conversation.

You may be amazed at how small, simple moves over time can lead to significant results.