The Compassion Paradox
Effective leaders Assuming Qualities In How To Achieve Leadership comfortable with paradox. They can call Achieving Leadership Qualities In The Community skills and work in ways that seem to be contradictory.
Dictionary.com defines paradox as a seemingly contradictory statement that may Achieving Leadership Qualities At Church be true. As I study the field, I find many paradoxes associated with leadership. I see that developing the skills How to Achieve Leadership Qualities while Thinking a great leader requires us to work in apparently contradictory ways that are nonetheless true.
I often see my clients and seminar participants wrestle with these issues because they present themselves as extreme and contradictory positions. Many people struggle because they view the paradoxical extremes as either/or positions rather than both/and positions.
One dilemma many people have difficulty confronting is, what I call, the Compassion Paradox As a leader, you must be compassionate AND you must hold people accountable. Sometimes I say it this way: You cannot be too soft if you want to be compassionate. Let me explain.
Depending on their personality style and personal experience, most people fall more on one side or the other of these two extremes. They are great Achieving Leadership Qualities in School holding people accountable, but not so great at showing compassion. Or, they are great at showing compassion, but not so great at holding people accountable. Learning to work both ends of this divide is one key to becoming an effective leader.
We normally fail to appropriately apply this principle because we do not really understand the two extremes. People who are comfortable with Achieving Leadership Qualities In Parenting view compassion as too soft. Deciding On How To Achieve Leadership Qualities people who are comfortable with compassion view accountability as too hard. The truth is that neither extreme is either soft or hard. They are simply different responses to different leadership situations.
Lets consider the definitions of these two responses
Compassion - deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.
Accountability the Achieving Leadership Qualities In School of being called to account; answerable.
As leaders, we must be aware of peoples needs and work to meet them i.e. we must be compassionate. We must also hold people accountable. If we fail to hold people accountable, the organization fails. If we do not address concerns, people work at bare minimum levels or they leave. Again, the organization fails.
Some people are comfortable with this paradox. I find that most are not. My personal challenge is this - I fall more on the compassion side than on the accountability side. With conscious effort, I have improved my Finding Leadership Qualities to hold people accountable. It is still not natural or comfortable for me. I realize, though, that it is necessary.
Whatever your bent, I encourage you to look at your behaviors as a leader. Are you more comfortable with compassion or with accountability? Either way, work to develop comfort with the other. When you can choose your response based on the situation, rather than your personal comfort, you Assuming Qualities In How To Achieve Leadership be skilled at applying the Compassion Paradox. You will be one step closer to acting as a highly effective leader.
Copyright 2005, Guy Harris
Guy Harris is the Chief Relationship Officer with Principle Driven Consulting. He helps entrepreneurs, business managers, and other organizational leaders build trust, reduce conflict, and improve team performance. Learn more at http://www.principledriven.com
Guy co-authored "The Behavior Bucks System TM" to help parents reduce stress and conflict with their children. Learn more about this book at http://www.behaviorbucks.com
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Author: kayshriver
Keywords: leadership seminar
Added: May 30, 2008
posted by 70924 @ 4:43 PM
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