weLEAD Online Magazine
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Copyright
2005 ã weLEAD, Inc.
September 2005 Editorial:
Creating an atmosphere of compassion
Welcome to the September
2005 weLEAD editorial
By Dr. Howard Baker
When President
George W. Bush was a presidential candidate he called for a more compassionate
The World
English Dictionary defines the word compassion as follows: sympathy for the
suffering of others, often including a desire to help. The word compassion
comes to us from the Latin word compass,
the past participle stem of compati from which we get the word compatible.
To be compatible is to be harmonious: to be able to exist, live,
or work together without conflict. To be compatible is to be consistent or in
keeping with something else. Therefore,
one who desires to show compassion must have a mind set that is compatible or
harmonious. The quality or trait of
compassion is closely associated with harmony and the ability to work together
without conflict.
We have recently seen disturbing examples
in the
Disharmony works against efforts of
compassion! When people are
compassionately pulling together and working harmoniously in order to relieve
suffering there is no room for escalating grievances, complaining, finger pointing,
and heated disputes. Certainly there may
be a need to bring problems or failures to the attention of responsible
authorities, but it should always be done in a manner that is not divisive. Foremost must be a spirit of harmony and
cooperation for the good of all.
Showing compassion is outgoing and
proactive. It is not reactive. Reactive
people have a victim mentality, blame, and finger point during a crisis, while
proactive people demonstrate their awareness of the critical reality of the
situation and recognize such negative behavior in a time of crisis is only
counterproductive. Rather, they will
strive to build a sense of cohesiveness and community for the greater good. The
fruit of such effort will be good will which will be remembered long after the
immediate crisis has passed.
To feel compassion is to feel passion for someone—to enter
sympathetically into their sorrow and pain.
The word passion comes from the Latin word meaning to suffer. Those who show
passion toward the weary and scattered victims of a disaster such as hurricane
Katrina will certainly feel strong emotion.
However, they must push aside reactive
emotions which foster party spirit and conflict and replace them with proactive emotions of cooperation,
kindness, mercy, and love.
One Hebrew word for compassion is Racham, which is
related to the Hebrew word for “womb” and expresses a mother’s or father’s love
and compassion, a feeling of pity and devotion to a helpless child.
True servant leaders
see themselves as no better than those who are suffering. Servant leaders are humble. They affirm the dignity and worth of
others. When we look down on
others—seeing them as less valuable than ourselves—we eliminate the possibility
of expressing true compassion on
them. In times of crisis, when people
are weary and scattered, true servant
leaders will become evident by their response to the situation. They will
be the leaders who show kindness, mercy, pity, and will also be doing good deeds—in other words, they
will be compassionate.
A true servant leader does not show
compassion just because it is intellectually
the right thing to do—even though it is
intellectually the right thing to do—but for a much more fundamental
reason. They do it because that is who
they ARE!
To have compassion is to be keenly aware of
the suffering of another coupled with the desire to relieve it. Compassion goes beyond just being aware of
suffering. It is having a passion for the sufferings of
others. It is being moved with
compassion to action! As we deal with the aftermath of Katrina, or
any future catastrophe, we must always remember that unity and compassion are
two sides of the same coin!
Comments
to: hbaker@leadingtoday.org
To read more
of Dr. Baker’s articles, click
here to locate the “Baker Collection”.
About the
author:
Dr. Howard Baker is Director of Education for INSPIRE! Learning Systems. He holds a B.S. in Management from Samford University, a Master of Accounting (MAcc) from the University of Southern California and a
Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been a Certified Internal Auditor
(CIA) since 1989. He is an adjunct
professor in both Business Administration and Public Administration at the
University of Texas at Tyler. Dr. Baker
is a lifetime charter member of weLEAD and the founding editor of the weLEADInLearning web site’s E-Journal of Organizational Learning and Leadership located at www.weleadinlearning.org. His weLEAD email
address is hbaker@leadingtoday.org.