IT Leadership

I have always believed that you can’t lead others until you have first learned to lead yourself. There is an incredible amount of courage, self-awareness, and compassion that goes into this foundational leadership skill. This article will break down the importance of leading yourself, what it means to be compassionate towards yourself, and how you can then lead and inspire a team with compassion.

Compassion Is The Heart Of Leadership
Compassion is a term that is tossed around quite a bit in recent years. It has become a bit of a trend word in the wellness space, and for good reason. It has power. It is a word that leaders should be familiar with and want to incorporate into their leadership style. Not sure what compassion really means or how to apply it to your leadership? We’re about to find out!

What Does It Mean To Lead Yourself?
Leading yourself means taking the time to consciously activate your self-awareness, your emotional intelligence, and your empathy skills. It means taking time out of your busy day to evaluate your personal and professional goals, your habits, your needs, your values, and your boundaries. It means reflecting on your past and imagining your future, tuning in to the present moment to determine what is working for you and what isn’t.

Leading yourself means prioritizing yourself sometimes in a way that benefits not only you but also your team and your organization. It requires an incredible amount of courage and resilience to take this journey inward. It can be a bumpy road. You might have moments of self-doubt, fear, and even depression when you look within and see yourself as you truly are. But the truth is, this is the first step to becoming an incredible leader.

The Role Of Compassion In Leading Yourself And Others
For me, compassion is the ability to recognize the suffering of yourself or another and then take steps to alleviate that suffering. In this case, it is suffering born from a lack of self-awareness, self-love, and self-care. It is suffering born from a disconnect from our values, our purpose, and our innate worthiness.

Compassion is the fuel that helps us to be more understanding, accepting, and kinder to ourselves. It is through compassion that we can begin to heal the places that cause us suffering. Compassion is the heart of leadership.

Self-compassion is the well from which all other compassion is drawn. You must learn to be compassionate towards yourself before you can lead a team with compassion. Until you learn to treat yourself with the same empathy, kindness, and understanding that you offer to others, you will struggle to lead a team with compassion at the forefront.

How To Lead A Team With Compassion
When you lead a team with compassion, you tune into the needs of your team members while still honoring the needs of the organization. It requires feedback and communication from both parties to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working together.

Leading with compassion means making sure that every individual on your team is valued, heard, and respected. It means creating an environment where people feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes without harsh judgment or criticism. It means challenging others to challenge themselves, all while supporting them through the process.

Create A Culture Of Compassion
As a leader, it is your job to create an organizational culture that values compassion. Some ways to do this are to provide everyone, yourself included, with:

Space
This means emotional space to be themselves, to feel, to express, and to release. It also means physical space to move, breathe, and think.

Opportunity
Opportunity to learn, grow, and develop themselves and their skills. Opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves and make an impact.

Respect
Respect for where they are in life, for their values, their beliefs, and their boundaries. Respect for their time and their work/life balance.

Understanding
Understanding when they are struggling, and providing the tools and resources to help them overcome whatever they are facing. Understanding when they make mistakes and compassion when they are struggling to overcome their mistakes.

Gratitude
Show gratitude for each individual on the team. A little bit of gratitude goes a very long way.

Forgiveness
We are all human, and mistakes happen. Offer forgiveness when mistakes are made, and also when you mess up yourself.

Empowerment
Empower your team to make decisions, to be leaders in their own right, and to have confidence in their own abilities.

Communication
Open, honest, and compassionate communication from leadership is key. Let your team know that you care about them as people, not just what they can do for you or the company.

Evaluation
Regularly evaluate the organizational culture and the individuals within it. Make sure that everyone is thriving and if they’re not, take steps to make adjustments.

Personal Leadership Development Plan
To help you lead yourself and your team with compassion, I want you to create a personal leadership development plan. This plan will help you identify aspects of leadership that you may need to work on as well as steps for how to strengthen those areas.

For each aspect, I want you to write out an actionable step you can take to work on that aspect, a way you can measure progress, and a timeline for when you hope to accomplish that goal.

Self-Awareness
As a leader, it is important to be self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you to improve upon your weaknesses and to capitalize on your strengths.

Actionable Step: Spend some time journaling about your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Write down everything that comes to mind, and then evaluate how you can turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Measure: Journal again in 90 days and see if you have made any progress in your self-identified areas for improvement.

Timeline: 90 days

Emotional Intelligence
Being in touch with your emotional intelligence will help you to understand your own emotions as they happen and therefore better manage them. It will also help you to understand the emotions of those around you. This is a key aspect of compassion.

Actionable Step: Begin a regular meditation practice to help you tune into your emotions and those of others. You can meditate first thing in the morning to start your day, or you can take 5 minutes before interacting with your team to tune in.
Measure: Keep a journal tracking your emotional reactions to situations over the next 90 days. Note when you react emotionally to something and if it is helpful or not.

Timeline: 90 days

Empathy
Empathy is a major component of compassion. It is the ability to recognize the emotions of others and respond in a supportive way.

Actionable Step: Begin to intentionally notice the emotions of your team members and mirror back to them the empathy and understanding that you would hope to receive if you were in their position.
Measure: Ask your team members if they feel that they are receiving empathy from you. Ask them to be honest and open in their response.

Timeline: 90 days

Leading With Vision
Leaders who lack vision will have a hard time motivating and inspiring their teams. You must lead with vision to lead well.

Actionable Step: Write out your vision for your team, for your organization, and for yourself as a leader. Read it over each morning and adjust your vision as needed. You may find that your vision for your team and organization is always evolving as the market and world around you evolves.
Measure: Evaluate the goals and milestones that you have set for your team and for yourself over the next quarter. Ensure that they are in line with your vision and making steps towards progress.

Timeline: 90 days

Creating A Culture Of Feedback
Leadership is not about commanding and demanding that things get done your way. Leadership is about evaluating the goals and needs of the organization and the team and responding accordingly. It is about open and honest communication and feedback.

Actionable Step: Set up one-on-one meetings with each individual on your team. Ask them how they are doing, what their goals are, what they need from you, and what they think about how the team is functioning. Take their feedback seriously and make changes where necessary.
Measure: Continuously ask for feedback from your team. Regularly assess how the team is functioning and make changes as needed.

Timeline: 90 days

A Culture Of Coaching And Development
One of the most important roles that you will play as a leader is that of a coach. You will help your team members grow and develop and ultimately reach their full potential.

Actionable Step: Meet with each of your team members to find out what their long-term goals are and where they want to grow. Create a development plan for each member of your team and check in with them regularly to see how their progress is coming along.
Measure: Track the employee satisfaction and development within your team and organization as a whole. Regularly check in with how your team is feeling about their own development and the development of the team.

Timeline: 90 days

Leading With Compassion
Leading with compassion means making an effort to care about your team as people, not just as employees. It means creating an environment where people feel safe, respected, valued, and cared for.

Actionable Step: Think of ways to make your team feel valued and cared about. This may look like recognizing achievements, celebrating holidays and milestones, offering flexible working hours, or creating a positive and friendly environment.
Measure: Regularly assess the overall morale of your team and make improvements accordingly. Ask yourself if you are doing enough to create a positive environment and if you are doing what you can to help individuals on your team.

Timeline: 90 days

Self-Care
In order to lead yourself and others with compassion, you must prioritize your own self-care. This will look different for everyone, as we all have different things that fill us up and bring us joy.

Actionable Step: Determine what self-care activities fill you up and make you feel refreshed and recharged. This may be exercise, spending time in nature, journaling, meditation, or quality time with loved ones. Block out time in your schedule for these activities and make them a non-negotiable.
Measure: Track your own overall mood and energy levels over the next 90 days and assess if your self-care activities are having an impact.

Timeline: 90 days

Conclusion
Leadership begins with leading yourself first. It is an inside job, and the foundation of that leadership journey is compassion. If you lack compassion for yourself and others, you will find that your leadership journey will be a difficult one. Fill your cup with self-compassion and lead yourself, and your team, with compassion and you will find that the journey is much smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.

I hope that these ideas around leadership and compassion will inspire you to take a deeper look at your leadership style and make any adjustments that are needed.