Making Positive Psychology Work

Can You Be Commercial and Compassionate? with Rasmus Hougaard

Apr 9, 2021

Rasmus Hougaard, an influential business thinker, discusses the importance of wise-compassionate leadership. He explains how leaders can transition from empathy to compassion, highlighting the benefits of creating a culture of trust and high performance. Rasmus also explores the connection between being a good leader and being a good parent or friend. Additionally, he teases an upcoming book on gender differences in compassionate leadership and shares insights on the power of well-being practices and mindfulness.

29:24

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Episode guests

Rasmus Hougaard

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Compassionate leadership goes beyond empathy by combining it with action to help others, enabling leaders to make tough decisions while still being kind and effective.

Understanding the difference between empathy and compassion is crucial for developing wise and compassionate leadership, as empathy alone can hold leaders back from making difficult decisions and taking necessary action.

Deep dives

Moving Beyond Compassion in Leadership

Compassionate leadership means going beyond empathy and taking action to help others. Empathy allows us to connect with others, but compassion combines empathy with action. Being a compassionate leader means doing hard things in a human way. This requires making tough decisions while still being a good human being. Research has shown that it is possible to be both kind and effective in leadership. Compassionate leaders are able to be present, have the courage to confront uncomfortable situations, be direct and transparent, and prioritize the greater good. This leads to the development of trust, psychological safety, and high performance in teams.

Introduction

2min

From Empathy to Compassion: Balancing Leadership and Care

19min

Being a Compassionate Leader

3min

Gender Difference in Capacity for Compassionate Wise Leadership

2min

Exploring the Power of Well-being Practices and Mindfulness

2min

Final Thoughts on Bringing Out the Best in Oneself and Others at Work

2min

Rasmus Hougaard is the founder and managing director of Potential Project. He’s recognized by the Thinkers50 as one of the most important emerging business thinkers and leaders in the world. He writes for Harvard Business Review and Forbes and lectures at the world’s leading business and executive education schools like IMD, Rotman, and IESE. Rasmus has led more than 1,500 keynotes and workshops, and he’s recognized as the leading global authority on training the mind to be focused, effective, and clear for great leadership, performance, innovation, and resilience.

In this week’s podcast, we find out about the difference between compassion and empathy and how wise compassionate leadership is the most effective way to lead our teams.

Connect with Rasmus Hougaard:

https://www.potentialproject.com/

You’ll Learn:

[02:51] - Rasmus shares what it means to do hard work the human way.
[04:59] - Rasmus Explains why we need to go beyond compassion.
[09:30] - Rasmus describes the four skills that underpin wise-compassionate leadership.
[14:45] - Rasmus explains the benefits for leaders and teams of wise-compassionate leadership.
[19:16] - Rasmus shares some examples of wise-compassionate leadership from his research.
[22:43] - Rasmus explains the cautions and caveats we need to be aware of as we do this work.
[24:12] - Rasmus shares with us what his research data shows about whether men or women are better wise-compassionate leaders.
[25:57] - Rasmus enters the lightning round!

Thanks for listening!

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Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

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Until next time, take care! Thank you, Rasmus!

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Making Positive Psychology Work

Can You Be Commercial and Compassionate? with Rasmus Hougaard

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Moving Beyond Compassion in Leadership

The Difference Between Empathy and Compassion

The Benefits of Wise and Compassionate Leadership

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts