Principals Reflection

“Wisdom, compassion and courage are the three universally recognised moral qualities of being human.” Confucius.

 Irrespective of our age, gender, educational attainment or workplace responsibilities, we will all at some point be challenged in regard to our levels of wisdom, compassion and courage. Schools are ‘in the business’ of education and we would hope that, from the mutual efforts of home and school, these three qualities would be enhanced. However, it is often not until we are placed in a position of responsibility or trust that these three qualities can be tempered and hopefully strengthened. Rasmus Hougaard is CEO of the global leadership organisation called the Potential Project and he is co-author of The Mind of the Leader. This book is the result of a two-year study, in conjunction with Harvard Business Review, in which 35,000 leaders and 250 high-level executives from a range of large organisations such as Microsoft and Google were interviewed. He wanted to understand what qualities leaders need to have in the 21st century to create a productive and happy workforce; his comprehensive research came up with the three quite traits of selflessness, compassion and mindfulness as being intrinsic to effective leadership.

There is a very big difference between empathy and compassion, with compassion being the ‘layer of action’ that comes after empathy; we try to solve the problem with this person by coaching or mentoring, by delegating the work to others, by taking on the work for ourselves if needed. The empathy-compassion link can be enhanced by engaging in the action, with some recent studies supporting this by identifying the part of the brain that is associated with mirror neuroning - the neurons in the brain that allows us to see another person in pain or see another person being happy - with that part of the brain becoming gradually ‘switched off’ if we do not take action in being compassionate. Therefore, one of the most important jobs for people in leadership - educators, parents - is to ensure the ego doesn't drive our behaviour, and that we behave in a selfless way, not for our own gain but for the gain of the people for whom we are responsible.

The research in the field of neuroplasticity in the brain, - that our brain is changing constantly depending on how we use it - is providing evidence that for every moment that we pay attention, in being ‘present’ with others, our brain is rewiring and making itself a more ‘present’, a more attentive, a more focused brain. For every time that we do something that is selfless, our brain is rewiring for selflessness to be our default behaviour, and the same with compassion. For many, compassion is an inappropriate word to bring into the concept of leadership, however, in Hougaard’s study and assessment of the 35,000 leaders, 96% of the leaders said that compassion is extremely important for their leadership. But Hougaard’s study also concluded that when we are entrusted with positions of power we sometimes lose our ability to really empathise with people, with almost all leaders surveyed concluding that their ratings in compassion declined for each year in their leadership position. Compassion implies an action, although it has the risk of leading to ‘burnout’, which we attempt to ‘deal with’ by gradually distancing ourselves from our role in supporting others. There is good reason why compassion is one of four Mercy values that are intrinsic to our identity at St Patrick’s.

Regards

Rod Linhart

(Principal)