Lead with Compassion
The message I have for those in HR and all managers who are now able to hire, is to interview with fewer shortcuts and with more compassion.
For instance, I understand how online applications save time and help in screening, but those who use them are losing sight of basic etiquette: There is a real person behind each application, and candidates are craving more Aloha in what has become a faceless process. It is appalling that the majority of those who apply online never receive any human response, not even a thank you for applying.
Then there’s all the hidden talent that slick digital screening keeps unknown: Employers are missing out too, because they aren’t looking hard enough. They make a rookie mistake, in assuming that the right info is appearing on their online application in the first place. Bad assumption: Even if you ask the right questions, there’s no guarantee that you get the right answers — even from the perfect candidate.
Leading with compassion in this process then, is about leading with empathy, with open-mindedness, and with smarts. Leading with compassion is having a positive expectancy about the innate good in all people: It’s there, waiting for you to tap into it, and place it well.
However compassion alone is never enough.
Manage for Competence
Let’s review our basic definitions of leading and managing as verbs connected to energy. Energy is the manager’s greatest resource: It’s the fuel which powers your production capacity, and creates all other business assets.
- LEADERSHIP is the workplace discipline of creating energy connected to a meaningful vision.
- MANAGEMENT is the workplace discipline of channeling that mission-critical energy into optimal production and usefulness.
Leading with compassion will recruit new energy. Your Aloha has made your company attractive to the best candidates.
Managing for competence will channel the energy of that new recruit you hire every day going forward.
Before an Alaka‘i Manager makes a job offer, they must think about how a candidate will fit in with the rest of their team. They want team players, sure, but they also want every single person in their workplace to be a star, exceptional at what they do.
The fact of the matter is this: Stars want to work with other stars. People want to believe that they are working with the best people in their field, and not with others who are second best.
In essence, Alaka‘i Managers will rightfully expect that their people re-apply for their jobs each and every day, applying for them by demonstrating their competence, their passion, their strengths, and their visionary thinking in the work they do. It is that expectation they give their support to as managers.
Managing with Aloha is not “going soft” with compassion alone. KÅ«lia i ka nu‘u (chapter 5): We want to excel each and every day:
“Excellence is never an accident: It is always intentional, and it always demands more than the norm. Be your best. Don’t settle for less, for there’s no honor and no reward in aiming lower than what you are capable of achieving. Once achieved, excellence has a way of permeating every aspect of what you do, and it affects everyone you touch in an organization, infecting those around you with zest and vitality.”
— KÅ«lia i ka nu‘u, the value of excellence, in Managing with Aloha
Compassionate hiring is smart, but it’s only the beginning.
In the archives:
- Regarding Leading with Compassion: Milk’s good” Got RISH? RISH is the acronym for Recruitment, Interview, Selection, and Hiring
- Regarding Managing for Competency: Performance Reviews: There’s a much better way. Keep the good in the process, get rid of the bad
Your Managing with Aloha self-coaching:
I have categorized this post with 2 of our 9 Key Concepts: Can you answer why?
- MWA Key 6: ‘Ohana in Business (category link)
- MWA Key 7: Strengths Management (category link)