Be a Person, Not Just a Manager: Leading with Compassion
Life has a way of intruding on even the best-laid plans. Illness, grief, burnout, family crises, and other personal challenges can affect anyone, including the most reliable and dedicated members of your team. How you respond as a leader in these moments defines not only your management style but also the culture of your organisation.
Leadership isn’t simply about meeting targets or maintaining productivity. It’s about recognising that every person who contributes to your team is human, with emotions, vulnerabilities, and lives that extend beyond their role. In challenging times, effective leadership requires being more than a manager. It involves being empathetic, adaptable, and prioritising humanity.
Leading with Understanding
When someone is going through a tough time, their ability to perform at their usual level may fluctuate. That doesn’t mean they’ve lost their value; it means they need space, structure, and support.
Here are some practical ways to lead with empathy while maintaining professional balance:
1. Initiate a genuine, private conversation.
Ask how they’re coping rather than how their work is progressing. Let them guide the discussion about what they’re comfortable sharing. Demonstrating that you care about their well-being, not just their output, builds trust and reduces anxiety.
2. Offer flexibility wherever possible.
Flexibility can take many forms, such as adjusted hours, temporary remote work, extended deadlines, or time off. The key is to listen and respond to their specific needs rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
3. Be clear and consistent.
Empathy doesn’t mean avoiding structure. Be transparent about what can be adjusted and what can’t. Provide clarity around short-term expectations and regularly review progress together, ensuring they feel supported rather than scrutinised.
4. Encourage use of available resources.
If your organisation provides well-being support, counselling, or employee assistance programmes, remind them that these options are available. Sometimes, people need permission to prioritise self-care without feeling guilty.
5. Maintain regular, meaningful check-ins.
Don’t offer compassion once and then retreat. A consistent, calm presence helps people feel grounded and supported. These check-ins don’t have to be long; a brief, authentic conversation can make a significant difference.
6. Protect the wider team’s balance.
Supporting one person should not come at the expense of others. Be mindful of how workloads are redistributed and ensure communication remains open and fair. Compassion is most effective when it’s balanced with transparency.
Creating a Culture of Compassion
When leaders respond to hardship with patience and understanding, they cultivate loyalty, trust, and psychological safety, the foundations of a healthy workplace. Teams led with empathy tend to perform better in the long term because people know they are valued for who they are, not only for what they do.
True resilience within a team doesn’t come from pushing harder through adversity. It grows from knowing that support is available when it’s needed most.
The Human Element of Leadership
You don’t need to have all the answers, nor do you need to fix what someone is facing. Sometimes, leadership means holding space and listening without judgment, adjusting expectations with care, and being willing to see the person before the performance.
Your empathy today may be the reason someone finds the strength to continue tomorrow. The culture you nurture now will one day be the same one that supports you when life presents its own challenges.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Maya Angelou
