Compassion in the workplace: Why being kind is important

Bianca Resnekov (standing in for CapeTalk’s Pippa Hunt) speaks with team coach Clive Vanderwagen.

Listen below:

In a world where people are working more, feeling disconnected, and experiencing burnout, compassion has never been more essential.  

Bringing compassion back to the workplace can improve the work environment, boost productivity and enhance customer satisfaction.

Compassion is a driver of performance and loyalty, says Vanderwagen.

It is also directly linked to how employees treated customers

“[We need to] bring back that human aspect that we’ve lost as we’ve got so busy doing more and more… it's making us do the job longer and making the job harder.” 

– Clive Vanderwagen, team coach

The three C’s of compassionate leadership:

• Curiosity: Regularly check in with your employees
• Care: Validate their emotions, even if you can’t fix the problem
• Consistency: Don’t let it be a once-off, build it into the culture

RELATED: Workplace mental health: How to spot the difference between burnout and depression

“We live in a world where things happen and somehow we are expected to walk into work and put the things away and focus on the task at hand… we need support in being able to do that.”

– Clive Vanderwagen, team coach

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion