How compassion can help lift the economy
Being a professional with a technical as well as an artistic background in the business world, I tend to articulate modern changes from a slightly different perspective. I consider it as my strength as not everything is as straightforward as we would like it to be.
So, here are some of my thoughts and observations:
1. Organisational resilience in unprecedented times
With COVID-19, our generation is facing its biggest crisis. By this point, we all know that once the dust settles, the world isn’t going to be the same place. Many companies are re-thinking the way they do things. The French luxury giant Louis Vuitton switched from manufacturing purses to face-masks. The Bank of America hired 2,000 employees and shifted 3,000 current employees to help with calls from customers and small business customers.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.” — Ratan Tata
It is beneficial to move employees within the firm based on their talent and skills. The key is to avoid being stubborn and stuck with the old ways of working when things are changing at a pace that none knows what might happen in the next hour.
2. Empower employees, don’t layoff
“You are not working from home; you are at your home during a crisis trying to work,” — managers need to understand this, especially when managing young professionals. As we are getting used to the new ways of working, the transition is harder for some than the others. Don’t talk about mental health because it’s trending, but ask your employees about how are they actually feeling.
Employees don’t lose their potential all of a sudden, instead, they lose motivation. But what drives this erosion of performance?
“I have been constantly telling people to encourage people, to question the unquestioned and not to be ashamed to bring up new ideas, new processes to get things done.” — Ratan Tata
People never forget how managers treated them when they were not at their best for valid reasons. The poor performance of the employees is often driven by the cruel fuel of ‘demotivation’.
Imagine this: ‘A demotivated employee gets laid off by a low-performing company’.This can be a scenario of “which came first: the chicken or the egg?” Did the company’s constant low performance demotivate its employee? Or the company never soared because its employees were not at all motivated?
From an unpaid intern to a high-paying executive, everyone is an employee and is answerable to someone. These workers at all levels possess potential which needs to be drawn out and cultivated. Remember this: abilities change, talent doesn’t. Retaining good people in a competitive industry is difficult but important.
3. Self-compassion should be your “new normal”
You are a human first, then an employee. Your health is more important than your salary. So first and foremost, practise self-compassion. “Self-compassion entails being kind and understanding toward oneself in instances of pain or failure rather than being harshly self-critical.”
“Ups and downs in life are very important to keep us going because a straight line even in an E.C.G means we are not alive.” — Ratan Tata
There are various ways to be kind to yourself — from meditation to hydration, from eating and sleeping well to exercising daily. One of the interesting practice is to check up on your casual friends. These are the ones you have the small talks with, the ones who don’t drain you, and when they remember a tiny detail about you, you can’t help but smile.
Talking to your weak ties even for 5 minutes or being remembered by them, puts you under no obligation to commit yourself in the conversation when you don’t want to. In fact, it gives you space to think about something different which normally wouldn’t cross your mind while in isolation.
But how will compassion help lift the economy?
All of these points require you to show compassion. Whether you are a senior executive, middle manager, an overcompensating employee or someone struggling to keep up with normal productivity — the key is to be compassionate first and then passionate.
“Power and wealth are not two of my main stakes.” — Ratan Tata
For example: We often admire the business tycoons for their excellent strategy, vision or big bank balance! However, I do think that there are two kinds of business leaders:
- Leaders who expand their business with a vision to make their own profit
- Leaders who expand their business to provide a livelihood to maximum people
Both of these leaders have to be smart and visionary in order to establish a large scale successful business. But deep down, we are bound to respect the latter more. As a leader, we aspire to be like them, and as an employee, we want to be looked after by them. My favourite example of one such leader is Ratan Tata, an Indian industrialist and philanthropist. :)
Such leaders provide a sense of institutional holding by cultivating the right culture and putting in place the right policies. These fair measures are taken transparently to make people feel secure for their jobs and are encouraged to stay strong during any crisis.
When a leader begins with sincerely caring for a group of people, together they realise that vision and forge a path towards success.
Hence, compassion drives our lives and we drive the economy. When empowered people empower others, they not only secure jobs and help careers to grow but also help lift the economy.
Stay strong. Together we will get through this phase.
Note: This article was first published on Swamini Khanvilkar’s LinkedIn profile on April 23, 2020.
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