Giving up a seat to a pregnant woman, being polite to retail workers, helping your friend move, taking a second to listen at work — compassion takes many forms.
Expressing empathy and compassion include the use of nonverbal cues and positive gestures such as open body language, listening, making eye contact, taking notes, or repeating what a patient says to confirm understanding.
To be compassionate is to feel deeply for another person as they experience the ups and downs associated with life. To be compassionate is to not just tell someone that you care, but also to show them that you care by being there before they even ask for it.
Listening, connecting and acknowledging a challenging situation facing an individual with kindness and taking action to help that person address the challenge. Listening and talking in a genuine and interested manner that reflects your full attention in your interaction with others.
My father was a deeply compassionate man. She has a wise, compassionate face. He smiled compassionately at her.
Compassion is your ability to recognize emotions in others and act on them. Compassion is important to building healthy and productive work environments. Compassion skills include empathy, communication, and decisiveness. A compassionate leader asks questions, listens to others, and is open to new ideas.
For example, you likely smile and take the trouble to remember people's names: that's empathy in action. Giving people your full attention in meetings, being curious about their lives and interests, and offering constructive feedback are all empathic behaviors, too.
These being the following: mindfulness, courage, altruism, empathy, self-compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, humility and integrity.
Qualities of compassion are patience and wisdom; kindness and perseverance; warmth and resolve. It is often, though not inevitably, the key component in what manifests in the social context as altruism. Expression of compassion is prone to be hierarchical, paternalistic, and controlling in responses.
Compassion helps us connect with others, mend relationships, and move forward while fostering emotional intelligence and well-being. Compassion takes empathy one step further because it harbors a desire for all people to be free from suffering, and it's imbued with a desire to help.
Compassion is shown to improve health and wellness because of its ability to drive meaningful interactions. It pushes us to address inequality, cruelty, and the struggles of others. It encourages us to be kind. It allows us to see others and how we can help them or hold space for them.
With compassionate empathy, a person might act on behalf of their unique understanding of another person's pain or struggles. For example, if a loved one is feeling hopeless or desolate because of a missed rent payment, a family member might act on their empathy by providing the funds to pay that person's rent.
Compassion in the context of the workplace
Compassion is defined as 'an empathetic emotional response to another person's pain or suffering that moves people to act in a way that will either ease the person's condition or make it more bearable' Lilius et al.
To have compassion means to empathize with someone who is suffering and to feel compelled to reduce the suffering. It's a fuller, truer definition than feelings alone, and it's a very biblical understanding.
Compassionate people respect others for who they are and what they have to offer. They don't let their own insecurities or feelings dictate how compassionate a person is – instead, compassionate people always try to be compassionate with those around them regardless of the circumstances.
Focusing on compassion at work promotes healthy interpersonal relationships (Dutton & Ragins, 2007). It lets us acknowledge and appreciate others wholeheartedly and work for the organizational benefits, rather than personal gains. Compassion works by building trust, mutual connections, and reciprocation.
Showing reasonable concern and support for colleagues in every way possible to help them perform and grow. Practicing active listening without interrupting and reflective listening by paraphrasing. Avoiding quick judgment. Using appropriate non-verbal cues.