While numerous critical pay negotiations continue between the Government and trade unions, several colleagues have reinforced to me the message that the ‘conditions’ element of ‘pay and conditions’ is a significant driver in how likely we are to remain in our roles, how enabled we are to deliver our roles and how this benefits others.
Kelly et al (2022) reported that, according to the NHS Staff Survey, a range of issues were associated with the probability of staff leaving their jobs, and this varied for different staff groups. In the case of nurses, Kelly concluded that, where there was higher reported staff engagement, there was a lower probability of leaving.
There is much written about the need for compassionate leadership in the NHS and there is a strong evidence base underpinning the benefits of compassionate leadership, summarised by West and Sinsky (2022) as:
‘The shortcut to getting to the other outcomes – the financial outcomes, the quality outcomes, the patient experience outcomes – is to consider the wellbeing of the workforce. You can go back one step further and say it's related to the leadership behaviours that then determine the wellbeing of the workforce.’
It has also been well documented that compassionate leadership is not a soft option and that it can help leaders effectively manage the performance of individuals, teams, organisations and systems.
However, where does one start to understand and quantify the level of compassion in a workplace? The Roffey Park Institute developed the ‘compassion in the workplace model’. A paper by Poorkavoos (2016) details the attributes identified in various studies for the institute, as well as those identified as relevant and necessary as part of the research undertaken to prepare the paper. The attributes can be summarised as follows:
Being alive to the suffering of others
It is important to recognise that, typically, it could be difficult to spot suffering in others in the workplace, as people will be busy with their own work and preoccupied with deadlines. The work environment and the culture of some organisation may also mean that people may hide their pain from others.
Being non-judgmental
Importantly, judging people in difficulty – or, worse, condemning them – is one of the obstacles preventing us from understanding their situation and thereby being able to feel their pain.
Tolerating personal distress
This is described as the ability to bear or to hold difficult emotions, that is being aware of others' personal distress but not being overwhelmed to an extent that prevents acting to help the other person.
Being empathetic
Empathy involves understanding the sufferer's pain and feeling it as if it were one's own.
Taking appropriate action
This is described as feeling empathy and taking the right action, in response to the person's situation and how well we know them.
Robust tool
Roffey Park has developed a psychometric tool that measures the level of compassion in a workplace. This tool – the Compassion at Work Index (CWI) – is useful for identifying areas you may need to develop/enhance to become a more compassionate person in your workplace. The CWI is a statistically robust model developed following in-depth review of the evidence and a survey of over 550 UK managers and non-managers. It provides a personalised report of how you see your own level of compassion at work across the five attributes, as well as practical tips to improve or enhance your approach. It is a tool that I would be keen to use.
West and Bailey's (2021) blog aims to demystify compassionate leadership to ensure people see its value. They explain that such leadership begins with self-compassion by attending to yourself, understanding the challenges you face in your work (and life more generally), empathising with or caring for yourself, and then taking wise action to help yourself. Doing so enables you to stay close to the core values that give our lives and work meaning – compassion, wisdom, courage and justice – resulting in the ability to have deeper, more authentic and more effective interactions with all those we work with and to whom we offer care.
The state that this style of leadership requires huge courage, resilience, and belief – and a commitment by you, as a leader, to be the best that you can be. Putting such leadership into action demonstrates not the myths, but the magic of compassionate leadership.