Compassionate leadership counts

摘要

Last month, my trust celebrated International Nurses Day. Our theme was compassion. While preparing my keynote speech, I reflected how much currency the term compassion has gained in recent years. I also reflected how leadership styles have changed, and how compassionate leadership is now a common term. Newman (2017) defined compassion as meaning 'to suffer together'. She describes compassion as the feeling that arises when confronted with another's suffering, prompting motivation to relieve that suffering. She went on to explain that compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, although she notes that the concepts are related. Newman remarked that empathy refers mostly to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person; compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. Altruism, in turn, is clarified as the kind, selfless behaviour often prompted by feelings of compassion, though one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism is not always driven by compassion.