As we wrote in a recent blog post, “Using All Your Intelligence To Lead Compassionately,” compassionate leaders are well-served by integrating head, heart, and body knowledge. One of our favorite ways of strengthening our head knowledge is curling up with a well-written book and exploring the themes and wisdom within. Here are a few recent reads that would be valuable for any compassionate leader to dig into.
Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work
by Ruchika Tulshyan
The last two years have seen a significant increase in stated commitment to inclusion in the workplace. It’s easy to express a commitment to inclusion, but making it real presents a much greater difficulty. In Inclusion on Purpose, Ruchika Tulshyan shows what it really takes to change cultures to make inclusion a reality. It takes awareness, an intention to connect, and practice. If leaders are going to change their workplaces, they are going to have to commit to being changed themselves.
Tulshyan uses the experience of bias that occurs at the intersection of gender and race to illustrate what policies are needed to create an inclusive culture. For example, she shows how hiring “for culture fit” instead of “culture add” is one of the most exclusionary practices around. This is but one example of the many specific, implementable actions leaders will take from this book.
Are you interested in creating a more inclusive culture, and willing to change yourself? If so, then read Inclusion on Purpose and start taking action now. It provides a roadmap leading straight to the heart of compassionate leadership. With a chapter on empathy and a full section on organizational actions, this book offers a recipe for compassion. It is a recipe that will only be executed by opening our hearts and minds to the different, often painful, experiences of others. The pain created in culturally exclusive workplaces is harmful and detracts from organizational purpose. Inclusion on Purpose offers a way beyond for leaders courageous enough to act.
Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself
by Stephen Trzeciak, M.D. and Anthony Mazzarelli, M.D.
The premise at the heart of Wonder Drug is straightforward: By serving others, “your life will crack wide open in only the best ways.” A partial list of the benefits of serving others includes living longer, more happiness and fulfillment, more stamina and energy, better sleep, and less depression. The book is clearly well-titled. If serving others can do all this, it is truly a wonder drug.
This book is the second book by Trzeciak and Mazzarelli, following up on their highly influential Compassionomics. The authors are scientists at heart, and careful only to reach conclusions supported by peer-reviewed research. Furthermore, they aren’t selling any cream, diet, or pill that will crack open your life. They are sharing data, and the data are compelling. Serving others does change us, and impact entire communities.
Evidence-based science undergirds all our work at the Center for Compassionate Leadership. Compassionate leaders are invited to read this book and take its persuasive evidence to create a road map for the benefit of themselves, their organizations, and the whole world.
Read our full review of Wonder Drug here.
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict: What You Say Next Will Change Your World
by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD
Marshall Rosenberg’s work on non-violent communications is timeless and universal. Its principles are powerfully effective in families, in organizations, in political sectors, and beyond. Yet, there also seem to be times when Rosenberg’s work is particularly resonant. This feels like one of those times. Speak Peace in a World of Conflict offers a calming antidote to our polarized world.
Compassionate leadership manifests as “power with,” not as “power over.” Non-violent communications offer leaders structure and language for creating encounters that are collaborative, “power with” actions. Through practice and repetition these actions will help create “power with” cultures. When this occurs, each of us, our teams, and our entire organizations flourish.
As with compassionate leadership, there is nothing soft about speaking peace. In a world where old friendships fray over political differences and where superpowers invade neighboring states, it requires great strength and courage to bring healing through our communication. Speak Peace in a World of Conflict shows us exactly how to strengthen our ability to offer powerful, healing communication.
Leading With Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People
by Donna Hicks, PhD
Dignity is a wonderful word, and one that likely elicits positive feelings for most of us. But do we really know what it means? In Leading With Dignity, the follow-on book to Donna Hicks’ Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict, Hicks offers a more practical approach to dignity and how to create a culture of dignity.
Hicks weaves together, from her distinctive lens of dignity, evidence of executive blind spots and hubris, the need for self-compassion, the role of psychological safety, and the importance of a growth and learning environment within organizations. Recognizing the inherent dignity of every human supports positive advances in each of these dimensions. The book is structured into three parts: What you need to know to lead with dignity, what you need to do to lead with dignity, and creating a culture of dignity. The book’s clarity and explicitly laid out learning arc reflect Hicks’ extensive experience as a professor at leading universities. The book’s very practical application come from the diplomatic work she has done in conflict regions all around the world.
When compassionate leaders recognize and affirm the inherent dignity of every single person they work with, amazing results ensue. Respecting everyone’s dignity, including our own, allows each person to “bring out their best.” And that will be good for all of us.
The Double Bottom Line: How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results
by Donato Tramuto with Tami Booth Corwin
The other books on our current reading list address foundational ideas and practices for compassionate leaders: inclusion, compassionate communications, shared common humanity and dignity, and serving others. In The Double Bottom Line, Donato Tramuto and Tami Booth Corwin tackle all of compassionate leadership.
Responding to concerns familiar to compassionate leaders everywhere, Tramuto and Corwin make a compelling case for the need for compassionate leadership and debunk the view that compassionate leadership is weak or is somehow opposed to results. They point out, with evidence from their own research, the compassion gap in organizations, and the discouraging difference between the number of people who see compassion as valuable and the number who actually see compassion in their own organization.
Having made a convincing case for the need for compassion in leadership, The Double Bottom Line lays out the leadership skills that make the building blocks for creating compassionate environments: trust, collaboration, embracing differences, and compassionate communications. Leaders who develop these skills can practice compassion for themselves, and then develop it among their teams.
The “double bottom line” of the title refers to approaches that favor both profitability and care for employees and community. Compassionate leadership supports organizational success. The Double Bottom Line makes a powerful case in support of this principle and shows leaders how they can deepen compassion in their own organizations.
In Closing…
We deeply appreciate the research and wisdom that emerge from these particular titles. While we haven’t met one compassionate leader who isn’t facing the pressures of time and an overly aggressive workload, we hope there is a little space in your day to encourage new thoughts, ideas, directions, and perspectives. Enjoy!