Let’s face it, business owners aren’t known for compassion and empathy. Entrepreneurs have long been depicted as cold and ruthless, impersonal and uncaring when it comes to the emotional concerns of their employees. It’s about time we change this as more and more people are understanding just how kind being kind is actually helpful.
A good entrepreneur is someone who’s empathic and caring. Needless to say, this kindness will not be a loss to the company or business. In fact, might just work the opposite way- help the company flourish! Let’s take a look at why being kind and compassionate in the workplace can help everyone, from the employees and even to the business itself.
Why Being Compassionate Helps
Reduces Stressors at Work. We all know that work can be stressful. A compassionate work environment acknowledges this and doesn’t tout a false sense of positivity. Providing the right compensation, encouraging expression of both feelings and ideas, and allowing your employees to rest, you’re reducing the overall stress at work that impacts their performance.
Reduce Employee Turnover
When you’re allowing your employees to take a necessary break, or even ease their workload, or as mentioned above, reduce their stress, they’re more likely to stay. This increases your employee retention and results in having more skilled employees because they have the experience and wisdom to deal with your system.
Keeps Everyone Healthy
Because everyone can rest and recover, they’re less stressed. And when they’re less stressed, they’re less likely to become sick. Their performance remains at a consistent level, and your business won’t suffer from employee setbacks like absenteeism, loss of quality in performance, or turnover.
Increases Collaboration and Cooperation
Leaders who are compassionate influence their staff, and in turn, everyone becomes kinder to each other. Toxicity is lessened, even removed, and working doesn’t feel as heavy or as tiring anymore. This also allows people to interact with each other with open minds and are more willing to cooperate.
How to Show Compassion and Empathy
Don’t Enable Burnout
Burnout is among the most common problems many businesses face. We all know what happens: an employee does more than what they can do, experiences burnout, and then their performance drops. You can prevent this from happening by actively discouraging working too much. Allow your employees to take their well-deserved breaks, and enable an office atmosphere of self-care.
Avoid micromanaging your employees, and trust their skills. When you trust your employees, you’ll discover that they’ll prove you right and do an awesome job.
Provide the Right Equipment and Tools
Simply put, your employees will be able to do more when they have the right equipment to accomplish their tasks. Businesses often think that skimping on equipment is fine because their staff can “manage” anyway, but they’re neglecting the difficulty and hassle of dealing with substandard equipment. With the right equipment, your staff will be more efficient and productive, resulting in an overall increase in your quality of work.
Be Ready to Help Them With Personal Problems
As a business owner, you might feel like your staff’s personal problems are none of your concern. But since their personal problems ultimately affect their work performance, it does matter to you as well. Be ready to offer a helping hand when they ask for it. The last thing anyone wants to hear when they’re asking for personal help is a cold and corporate response.
They might need rest from taking care of a family member and are thinking of utilizing respite care services so they can have a break- let them! Allow them to take a holiday to recover. They’ll appreciate your concern and will carry a sense of loyalty towards you because they know you respect their needs.
Allow Mistakes, and Provide Training
When people make mistakes, the first reaction is normally fear. Fear that they’ll be harshly reprimanded or they’ll have to face severe consequences. This doesn’t really help anyone, and it only hinders progress. When mistakes happen, acknowledge the mistake and learn from it. We’re all humans and we all make mistakes, but it’s far more important to figure out what went wrong to avoid it in the future.
Providing continuous training, for both your new hires and veterans will give them the edge they need to do quality work while reducing mistakes. They’ll also be using the latest industry innovations, so overall, your business will benefit from it.
Kindness and compassion aren’t particularly hard. They’re natural to us humans. But we need to practice it daily, even in the workplace, to reap the benefits. The best entrepreneurs recognize this and use it to help everyone.
