Compassionate Leadership

Shortlisted in the Leadership category at the Business Book Awards in partnership with Pathway Group 2024

Longlisted for the CMI Management Publication of the Year 2024

Finalist in the Leadership - Think Differently category of the Goody Business Book Awards 2023

Experts increasingly recognise that our volatile, complex, and fragile world requires a new type of leadership. More than ever, we need leaders who understand how compassion connects them with their employees, stakeholders and wider communities. Yet compassion in organisations is often misunderstood, with many leaders reluctant to embrace it lest they appear weak.

Compassionate Leadership draws on new and established research in psychology, behavioural science, neuropsychology and leadership theory to show that compassion, when correctly understood and applied is, in fact, a formidable and sustainable force for positive leadership.

This book explores the common myths, pitfalls, and concerns about leading with a compassionate approach. It discusses the leadership, organisational and individual benefits of compassion and shows how leaders can design an organisation which establishes, then reinforces, a compassionate culture.

A practical guide, this book provides evidence-based tools, appraisals, and frameworks which emphasise everyday applications that leaders, managers, and business students can adopt both individually and for their organisations.

Compassionate Leadership presents a new model of compassion, an approach based on multidisciplinary research in a variety of organisational settings. It gives leaders a theoretical and practical underpinning they can use for deeper reflection and personal growth to turn their new-found knowledge into action.

Provides strong basis in research, with practitioner application.

Offers a revised model of compassion and tangible results and practices.

Includes leadership and organisational case studies.

Kirstie Drummond Papworth is a psychologist, Behavioural Change Executive Coach and compassion researcher. Her research includes an examination into the effects of self-compassion on stress, anxiety and depression in leaders, as well as research into the benefits of organisational compassion. Kirstie’s commercial background includes various roles in a FTSE50 organisation, commercial director for an independent wine importer, executive director at a leading global business school and running her own successful behavioural change consultancy, Tangerine Thistle.

Kirstie delivers leadership development interventions across many sectors including higher education, retail, software, engineering, healthcare and the armed forces. She also delivers regular webinars and workshops for the British Psychological Society. Kirstie has delivered keynote speaker events on compassionate leadership for conferences and professional development groups, including LeanIn, numerous NHS Trusts and BBC Radio. She is a TEDx speaker on her specialist subject of compassion, and is Chair of Trustees for the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion, Oxford.

Without compassion and kindness, how effective can a leader be? Kirstie has impeccable credentials to illuminate these qualities. She works with leaders, understands the pressures under which they operate and helps address the dysfunction that is an inevitable by-product. This practical guide has all the trademarks of Kirstie's down-to-earth, compassionate approach to leadership.
Richard Hytner, Former Worldwide Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, and founder of Blue Hat Man　

The author takes a distinctive approach to leadership development and practice by using the concept of compassion to focus on the human and emotional aspects of leadership behaviour . . . the author’s definition of compassion and her intent to reinterpret it in a practical and hard-headed way instead of the more conventional soft-centred way has real value. It has the potential to allow leaders to improve the way people feel about their organisation and commit themselves to it, and themselves to become more effective.
Sir David Pepper, formerly Director GCHQ

The power of this author’s approach is to focus not so much on what makes people feel good, or conform to expected standards but to create a clearly actionable fusion of practice with contemporary research and the words of great authorities on what is good and leads to better well-being at the same time: i.e. compassion.
Dominic Houlder, London Business School

Compassionate Leadership by Kirstie Papworth is a transformative read for managers and leaders seeking personal development with impact. With a pragmatic approach and a new model, Kirstie explores the practical benefits of compassion in organisational life, including improved employee trust, increased productivity, and stronger professional relationships. But what sets this book apart is its emphasis on the mental health and well-being benefits of compassionate leadership, empowering leaders to build a more positive work culture that benefits individuals, organisations, and society. If you're looking to develop your leadership depth sustainably while creating a more compassionate workplace, this book is a highly practical must-read.
Chris Dalton, Henley Business School

Compassionate Leadership is an essential read for leaders looking to foster resilient and sustainable workplaces.
Tatiana S. Rowson, author of Personal Leadership in the Age of No Retirement