September brings reminders of limited time before the calendar year ends. How many weeks left in the year? Not many! If you are looking at a very full plate of to-dos, is there a more compassionate series of thoughts and actions that will ease the path forward? How might you reorient your personal and organizational compass and recalibrate the long-term goals you set at the start of the year ..read more

We are all wired with the same desires – to feel safe, to be loved. These needs put us on paths to seek connection and offer opportunities for our purest expressions of our humanity. There are many things that impede our attempts at getting these needs met. When leaders strive to create cultures of safety, connection, and belonging, we are meeting those core human needs. This is no easy feat ..read more

In this Compassionate Leadership Case Study, we explore how Pinuccia Contino, the Deputy Director for Consumers – European Commission, used a department reorganization as an opportunity to link the power of well-being and compassion to the pillars of her department’s work, aligning with both the values and purpose of the organization ..read more

On our journeys, we find ourselves swimming in metaphors for how to win at work. Perhaps you resonate with the long trek up the mountain, prepping our heavy packs with the resources we need to get to the top. We anticipate what tools and gear we might need for bad weather and back-ups should the trail wash out. Or, maybe you’re all on bikes, taking advantage of hills, and drafts, relying on one another to get where you need to go. These stories can place us in different contexts – on mountain tops, on the open road. The implications for leadership abound. Yet, what’s missing in most of these c ..read more

Remember going to the playground as a young child? The spaces are filled with possibilities, challenges to navigate, and new equipment to climb and crawl on. Imagine approaching the sandbox and you see, sitting in the corner of the yard, a seesaw, with a line of eager children waiting to take their turn. In order to make seesawing fun, you have to use your weight and your balance to counter the one sitting opposite. If you simply sit at equal footing, nothing happens. No one moves. And if you use too much force, the kid sitting on the other side of the bench will crash to the bottom, bumping o ..read more

Compassion has the power to help employees flourish and create stronger, more innovative organizations. The evidence is clear. Creating compassionate organizational environments leads to significant benefits for the organization: lower turnover, higher employee engagement and satisfaction, greater creativity and innovation, and higher-quality connections with deeper trust. For leaders looking to improve their organization, this evidence suggests that finding ways to bring more compassion into our working world should be a no-brainer. The implementation and application of compassion into system ..read more

As humans, we are wired to survive. In the face of danger, our instincts tell us to freeze or flee, adrenaline pumps through our veins, and our hearts race. Unfortunately, we’re all familiar with varying levels of feeling unsafe. The dictionary definition of vulnerability is “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.” The possibility of being attacked? It’s only natural for people to think, “But why would I want to expose myself to that?” In workplaces and organizations, there may not be tigers lurking around the cor ..read more

When was the last time you stepped outside and inhaled deeply? Perhaps you can recall a time you let your toes be tickled by grass, or stood in awe at the base of a mountain wall made of stone, craning your neck to see the blue sky. When was the last time gravel crunched under your feet, or a babbling brook laughed as it gurgled on by, while you sat, simply watching on stones nearby? We’ve made another trip around the sun and arrived at Earth Day once again. Today, and every day, we hope to remember to take pause to acknowledge the amazing globe on which we live and the role we play in sustain ..read more

From the moment we wake, demands lie at our fingertips. Headlines reach out to us in all capital letters and videos cause our stomachs to lurch. It’s tempting to scroll and tune out when paying attention can be overwhelming. And in the noise, a multitude of voices remind us that the time for compassion is now. We’re not strangers to the threats present to both humanity and the planet. The impacts of climate change, social injustice, and war and the suffering these forces are causing are very present. This is not the story we want to tell our grandchildren. Story arcs remind us of a hero’s jour ..read more

Ladders. Jungle Gyms. Plateaus. Mountain tops. All of these nouns are used to describe the things we can climb in our professional and personal journeys. The dots from here to there connect our choices and create our stories, both for ourselves and the organizations we steward. Like small children on a playground, we find ourselves wondering where, when, and what to climb. We’re told from a young age that we’re supposed to get to the top. Many cultures celebrate upward movement with increasing levels of responsibility, corresponding titles, and the ability to consume more. We are taught to fol ..read more