We are excited to bring you an insider’s guide to leading with compassion this week on the Healthcare Experience Matters Podcast by our Healthcare Experience Foundation (HXF) partners. Our guest is HXF Co-founder and President and PRC Senior Vice President, Excellence Accelerator®, Katie Owens.
“Compassionate leaders are self-motivated. They’re able to influence employees and medical staff positively,” she told us.
We know from previous discussions on this podcast that compassionate leadership happens the minute you start to do something compassionate. Exploring the essence of compassion is such an important, recurring theme in this podcast series because we are so passionate as to its value.
Previously we’ve had discussions about introducing the concept of compassionate leadership, influencing compassion as healthcare leaders, and the urgency for compassion in our organizations.
We have also had memorable discussions regarding understanding and applying the principles of self-compassion, and a very helpful interview containing mental health tips for busy practitioners. All of these podcast interviews do a phenomenal job of supplementing so much of the information that is exchanged in today’s interview with Katie.
As a quick recap for those who may have missed our previous podcasts regarding compassionate leadership… a compassionate leader demonstrates the following key characteristics:
- Is self-motivated and able to influence employees positively.
- Builds long-term trusting relationships and collaborations for the company.
- Is morally strong and has an ethical code of conduct.
- Takes responsibility for low employee productivity and aims to rebuild it.
- Has the ability to make a team feel secure and comfortable at work.
When it comes to understanding the obstacles to becoming a compassionate leader, we learn a lot through today’s chat with Katie. Whether we’re working on compassionate leadership or restoring compassion in our patient encounters, the biggest obstacles that Katie has seen in the research include: compassion fatigue, stress and burnout.
“We get thrown into these difficult conversations, and if we’re not careful, we may feel like all of our ‘compassionate air’ has left the room,” Katie said.
Listen to this podcast episode below: