Leadership
is Compassion
Compassion as
exhibited by Joseph:
Genesis
43:28-31 They said, "Your servant our father is
well; he is still alive." And they bowed their heads and prostrated
themselves. 29 And he lifted
up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, "Is
this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my
son!" 30 Then Joseph
hurried out, for his compassion
grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his
chamber and wept there. 31
Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said,
"Serve the food."
Genesis 43:30 WrÜm.k.nI-yKi (niphal perfect, 3ppl Niphal verbs express a state or feeling that acts
upon the subject
Compassion as exhibited by Jesus:
Matthew
9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew
9:36 vesplagcni,sqh Aorist passive indicative,
3ps
Compassion as exhibited by the Prodigal’s Father:
Luke
15:20 And he arose and came to his father. But while
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
Luke
15:20 evsplagcni,sqh Aorist passive
indicative, 3ps
Compassion as expected of all Christ-followers:
Colossians
3:12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and
beloved, compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience,
Colossians
3:12 spla,gcna Noun, accusative neuter pl
Compassion has three components:
- A cognitive component: “I understand you”
- An affective component: “I feel for you”
- A motivational component: “I want to help you”
The practice of compassion is about going from self
to others. In a way, compassion is about going from “I” to “We.” So if
switching from “I” to “We” is the most important process of becoming an
authentic leader, those who practice compassion will already know how and will
have a head start.
But wait, there’s more. I found the work of Jim
Collins, documented in his book Good
to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, to be
even more illuminating.
The premise of the book is itself fascinating:
Collins and his team tried to discover what makes companies go from good to
great by sifting through a massive amount of data. They started with the set of
every company that has appeared on Fortune 500 from 1965 to 1995, and they
identified companies that started out merely as “good” companies that then
became “great” companies (defined as outperforming the general market by a
factor of three or more) for an extended period of time (defined as fifteen
years or more, to weed out the one- hit wonders and those that were merely
lucky). They ended up with a set of eleven “good to great” companies and
compared them to a set of “comparison companies” to determine what made the
merely good companies become great.
The first and perhaps the most important finding in
the book is the role of leadership. It takes a very special type of leader to
bring a company from goodness to greatness. Collins calls them “Level 5” leaders.
These are leaders who, in addition to being highly capable, also possess a
paradoxical mix of two important and seemingly conflicting qualities: great
ambition and personal humility. These leaders are highly ambitious, but the
focus of their ambition is not themselves; instead, they are ambitious for the
greater good. Because their attention is focused on the greater good, they feel
no need to inflate their own egos. That makes them highly effective and
inspiring.
While Collins’s book convincingly demonstrates the
importance of Level 5 leaders, it (understandably) does not prescribe a way to
train them. I do not pretend to know how to train Level 5 leaders either, but I
am convinced that compassion plays an essential role.
If you look at the two distinguishing qualities of
Level 5 leaders (ambition and personal humility) in the context of the three
components of compassion (cognitive, affective, motivational), you may find
that the cognitive and affective components of compassion (understanding people
and empathizing with them) tone down the excessive self- obsession within us,
and thereby create the conditions for humility. The motivational component of
compassion, wanting to help people, creates ambition for greater good. In other
words, the three components of compassion can be used to train the two
distinguishing qualities of Level 5 leadership.
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