Want your team to thrive? Leading with compassion is the way to do it.

As the cases in Australia of Covid-19 reduce, Monash is transitioning back to campus. There are things that we already know: It is going to be a staggered process, that the student experience is going to be different, and our employees are facing unprecedented challenges. As leaders, we can help our employees with this transition.

We know that as managers, we are leading a workforce where some people are still working from home, whereas others will be in the office; We are leading in a sector that is under a cloud of uncertainty; And, We are leading in a community where the daily impacts of Covid-19 are still being felt.

Yet, under these circumstances, we are trying to do more, with less. We are attempting to motivate our employees to go above and beyond for our teams and our students, all the while striving to support our employees during this tough time.

As we are an educational institution, we should look at what the research says is the most effective way to lead a team to both support employees through times of crisis and still deliver the services we know our teams can.

Leadership research has become very clear over the past two decades. A compassionate approach to leadership, where leaders put the needs of their employees above their own and the organisation, is both good for employees and the organisation.

If you put the needs of your employees first, everything else will look after itself

Being compassionate with your leadership is good for our employees. Employees who work alongside a compassionate leader are more likely to thrive in the workplace, experience high levels of wellbeing, meaningfulness in their work, and importantly for our current environment have a strong work-life balance.

Being compassionate with your leadership is also good for Monash University. There are over 200 academic peer-reviewed articles that demonstrate that compassion in leadership increases the performance of your employees and your team, which ultimately influences the performance of the organisation (firm and operational).

Comparing to other leadership approaches that focus just on the task at hand, by adding compassion to your leadership, you can increase performance by 20%.

This might be the reason why the first value of Monash University is to provide a collegiate and respectful environment for all staff and students. It is beneficial to our staff and the University.

How can we be compassionate with our leadership at Monash? 

While there are a number of ways that leaders can show compassion, we have highlighted three behaviors from the empirical research, that you can start doing this week to transform your team.

Show genuine concern:  

The best leaders show genuine empathy for their people and this could not be more important right now. While starting meetings with “how is everyone really doing”, is an effective first step, as leaders we need to think about how we allow all employees to have these conversations. This could mean carving out meaningful time to understand the challenges that your employees are facing on a one-on-one basis.

Virtues and leadership researcher, Dr Toby Newstead, argues that there are six questions you can ask your employees to help you understand how to better support them. Within our job at Monash, questions such as “What things are you dealing with in your home environment”, “What makes you feel supported”, and “What are you struggling with”, can help us as leaders better tailor the support we give to each employee.

Remember, if you are not forthcoming about your feelings, your employees will not be either.

Do not put career development on hold:

Our heads are not in the sand, we know the struggles that the University sector is currently facing and will be facing over the next few years. However, our employees’ careers are not on hold. Our employees still have career goals that as leaders we need to help them achieve.

Book time with each of your employees to talk to them about how they fit within the team, where you can see them going into the future, and more importantly where they want to go with their careers and how you can help them achieve these goals.

This could include finding everyday opportunities to help them develop new skills, making introductions to help build their network, or allowing them room to grow by giving them stretch assignments.

Sometimes it is just enough that your team knows that you are still caring about their careers and that there is life after our current crisis.

Get back to basics:

There are a lot of bad habits that we have all fallen into while we have worked from home. Now is the time to reset, and get back to doing the basics right. This includes simple behaviors such as:

Giving informal feedback. Previously, we might give informal feedback on how a project is going while we walk back from a meeting. This has gone by the wayside as we have been working remotely. Giving developmental feedback to junior employees, giving credit where credit is due, and congratulating employees on successes need to be integrated into our virtual working routines.

Empowering employees. As managers, we might have micro-managed a little more than we usually would to stay on top of a constantly-changing landscape and to not overload our employees. That needs to change. You hired your team because they are good people and you trust them. Practice smart empowerment by giving your employees a clear start and endpoints, ensuring they have the resources to succeed, and be available if they need assistance.

In saying all of this, remember to look after yourselves. We cannot give from an empty glass. Like our employees, managers are dealing with a multitude of competing priorities and stressors to ensure Monash continues to thrive. Leadership is hard, and right now, you are probably facing some of the biggest challenges of your career. So remember to take the time you need to also practice self-care.

The transition back to work is not going to be simple for ourselves or our employees. As managers, if we can make minor changes to our daily leadership routines to better support our employees, this will have long-lasting positive impacts on our team and Monash University in the long run.