The Compassionate Workplace: Leading with the Heart

Abstract

In the context of grief in the workplace, this article explores elements of what constitutes a compassionate employer and how this aspect of service leadership can be enacted through a “vital listening.” The different but interrelated aspects of vital listening which are presented frame a non-judgmental approach to avoid the potential for stigma and discrimination in the workplace, and to honor needs associated with the identity, worth and sense of belonging of the person being supported. In so doing, it builds on the work of Kellehear (2005). Material is used from three primary sources: Sendjaya's six dimensions of servant leadership (2005), Swann's eleven elements of compassionate leadership grounded in a matrix of Bolman and Deal's four leadership frames (2002) and the work of Bottomley and Tehan (2005), associated with the development of a “Best Practice Support Model” in the Australian workplace.