Karen Skehel, Founder of Walk on Waves Coaching and Meditation, works with organisations to improve employee productivity & reduce mental health absence through compassion-focused wellbeing initiatives and compassion-focused leadership coaching.

What does compassionate leadership mean to you?

Compassionate leadership is all about non-judgmental empathy, kindness, caring and support; being able to tune into people’s needs and respond with genuine care and concern.

A compassionate leader encourages compassion from their colleagues; working to create a culture of openness and authenticity by showing their humanity and talking about their own challenges. The reason this is so important is because it normalises openness for others, and makes it much easier for employees to talk about their mental health and other emotional challenges.
Compassionate leaders are also careful to practice compassionate self-leadership: noticing their own suffering, and having a repertoire of compassion-focused wellbeing practices to support personal wellbeing and productivity.

Do you believe that leadership style is more important in the current climate?

We're living in a climate that’s entirely new to us; experiencing deeper levels of uncertainty and a lack of freedom and choice, with many of the usual connection channels closed off.

Leaders can help by:

• Creating environments where every employee feels safe to share how they are feeling (if they wish to)

• Recognising when someone doesn't feel safe enough to share their needs, and being able to offer authentic reassurances

• Facilitating freedom and choice as much as practically possible, to enable employees to discover how to work in ways that suit themselves and the wider team

• Co-creating with team members ways of connecting with their colleagues, whilst ensuring there is no pressure to connect outside of work if that doesn't feel helpful

What are the main challenges that face today's leaders when it comes to supporting employee mental health?

The usual signs of mental ill-health may be less visible to leaders because of physical separation, so being able to pick up on cues is a challenge. Leaders are also faced with:

• Trying to understand individual challenges without making assumptions

• Noticing when people are holding back from expressing their needs

• Facilitating a healthy work/life balance when the boundaries are blurred by remote working

• Understanding that some employees will choose not to express their challenges and their needs, and ensuring they know that’s okay; it’s their choice
  

How can leaders support the wellbeing of their workers?

It’s important that employees know that their wellbeing is a priority. Leaders are wise if they communicate the specific ways, they’re available to support their teams, exploring new ways to offer support, and encouraging authentic feedback from all team members.

To do that, leaders need to fully understand the options available within their organisation, expand on these where necessary, and create a culture where practising compassion and compassion-focused wellbeing initiatives is the norm.

What are some of the benefits of compassionate leadership?

When you lead with compassion, research indicates that your employees are likely to be happier, more resilient, less impacted by stress, less self-critical, and more collaborative and cooperative within their teams.

This style of leadership can also reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, increase social connection, reduce the risk of employee burnout, and boost feelings of job satisfaction and organisational loyalty.

Karen Skehel and her team offer a compassion-focused programme of wellbeing and productivity initiatives, including compassion-focused leadership coaching, and compassion-focused wellbeing sessions. To learn more about supporting employee wellbeing through compassionate leadership techniques, contact Karen at karen@wow-coaching.co.uk, visit the Wow Coaching website, or see what Karen is up to over on LinkedIn.