By Jennifer D. Kluge
Dec. 2, 2010
Compassion is not a sign of weakness in a leader, it’s a sign of strength. So often, especially in women, a leader’s compassion is frowned upon as a sign of weakness. Why does the Golden Rule only apply outside of our places of employment? The beauty of being the CEO is it’s your right to run your teams as you want to run them. Don’t let the text books tell you that compassion is for the weak, actually compassion in the workplace is only for the bravest of CEOs.
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs and business leaders in my family and I’ve got to tell you, compassion is not one of the skill sets that one is taught in business school or around the family business table. In fact the opposite is taught. It’s a much harder road, being compassionate and giving people a chance to be heard. Giving people a chance to correct mistakes is even harder.
I had a chance this past month to show compassion to my team members. It was a delicate situation, but I handled it in quite an unorthodox manner, some say a weak manner and I lead with my gut and not with my brain. Notice I did not say my heart. This was not an emotional decision, as so many women leaders are pegged with. Trust me, emotion was involved, but not related to making a decision. Sometimes what we are taught, studied,and past experiences are just not the best solution and only our gut instinct can dictate what is correct, or at least will determine what needs to be learned moving forward.
I think the reason why CEOs don’t show more compassion is it is perceived as a weakness. CEOs are perceived as the authority for discipline, structure, order and leading with firmness. While that is true most of the time, compassion is a powerful tool for a CEO. I believe that it is much more powerful than discipline if it is genuine. I do think women over compensate for being labeled as weak when we show compassion, so we are a bit harsher with the discipline. Then more labels come. Men are really considered weak if they demonstrate too much compassion as they don’t fit the label of what a typical male leader should be in the workplace. So compassion becomes taboo. Just stay away from compassion, because if you show any you are too weak, or unprofessional, or inappropriate, or ingenuine.
I personally don’t care what label people give me. I have decided that the golden rule, within certain professional guidelines, should apply both inside my office and outside my office. So label away.