“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." —Lao Tzu.
When we look at soft leaders like Lord Jesus and Buddha, we find them being filled with compassion. They changed the face of the world through their compassion. The soft leader like Mother Teresa helped lepers through her selfless service. She made a lot of difference in the lives of the poor and downtrodden in India. Compassion is an integral characteristic of soft leadership. It helps in connecting with others easily. People appreciate the leaders who care for them and touch them.
Compassion is one of the unheralded characteristics of soft leaders. However, we rarely find leaders with compassion currently. Unfortunately, most of the leaders are busy protecting their personal and professional interests ignoring the interests of others.
Compassion means caring for others by ignoring your own interests. Compassion means keeping the interests of others as paramount by subordinating your personal interests. Compassion is not a weakness. Kahlil Gibran rightly said, "Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution." Compassion is all about genuinely caring for your people. It is handholding them without expecting any returns. Compassion commands great inner strength, courage, and power. It is one of the greatest gifts humans receive from God. But how many of us demonstrate and exercise compassion is a million-dollar question.
People often confuse between compassion and sympathy. Both are different indeed! Sympathy is external, feeling sad about others. However, compassion comes from the core of the human heart. It is considered the highest expression of humanness. It is a state of consciousness and distillation of all the virtues.
It is a well-admitted fact that compassion builds loyalty and loyalty builds trust. And soft leaders connect with others through trust. Compassion and empathy make the difference between a leader people want to follow and one they need to follow.
Through compassion soft leaders can maximize their people and organizations. Real leaders are the ones who encourage others to take care of others and who empathize and demonstrate compassion to others. Only such leaders can influence and maximize the potential of their people thus bringing the best out of them. The slogan is when you maximize your people, you maximize your organization. And it is possible only through soft leadership.
A Take-Home Message
"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." —Martin Luther King Jr.
A soft leader needs to have a well-rounded personality. We cannot expect someone to be a good leader without being compassionate with followers. Compassion is a key to ministering to people. Compassion makes a lot of difference in making leaders as soft leaders. Soft leadership flows from the fountain of compassion.
Everyone talks of becoming something big, not of becoming a worthy citizen. Why do society and parents create such a mindset among the people? Why should not we think of becoming worthy citizens, virtuous persons, or helpful persons to society?
Think what Dalai Lama said, "If you want others to be happy, then practice compassion. If you want to be happy, then practice compassion."
Reference
https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Leadership-New-Direction/dp/1949003523
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