In the new world of work, the compassion advantage is your new competitive advantage. In her new book, leadership and change organizational expert Jill Birch not only shows readers why but also how — breaking down seven proven practices that lead to stronger, more successful teams.
The Compassion Advantage is the leadership manual you’ve been waiting for. The new world of work demands a new type of leadership and, whether you’re an aspiring leader or a seasoned pro, this book provides the framework to furthering your career through the power of relational leadership. Grounded in self-awareness, compassion, and growth, it is the key to empowering and engaging teams, delivering results, and creating a happier, healthier, and more productive workplace that attracts and retains the best and the brightest.
We recently sat down with Jill to learn more about relational leadership and how her new book offers the strategies needed to become a better and more confident leader — especially for today’s rapidly changing world.
Leadership and the Compassion Advantage
Speakers Spotlight: What is the compassion advantage and why is it so crucial to successfully lead in today’s rapidly changing corporate landscape?
Jill Birch: I interviewed over 100 leaders while writing this book. The first question I would often ask was, “how do you lead?” Pretty simple, right? But when I asked this question, I was surprised by how many leaders were stumped.
Not paying attention to how self-aware they are, how they develop relationships, how they nurture culture, or how they navigate complexity is getting leaders into trouble, and we’re seeing the fallout everywhere around us — the epidemic of quiet quitting, the rise in toxic cultures, projects off the rails, or the innovation drought. It’s not good enough for leaders to say they don’t have time to pay attention to how they lead. These mistakes and misreads are exacting too high a toll on productivity and performance. Today’s corporate landscape is demanding a different kind of leadership.
21st century leaders need to be much more intentional and deliberate about how they lead and, importantly, how they model this behaviour to others. The Compassion Advantage has been designed to supercharge a leader’s capabilities to become more relational while simultaneously amping up business savvy. It fuses hard and soft skills, engaging the left and right sides of the brain to think digitally and creatively, analytically and visually.
The Compassion Advantage is the competitive advantage organizations need today. It helps them master seven interlocking practices to not only support their organization to grow and thrive but also earn them that next big promotion.
The Relational Leadership Effect
SpSp: How does relational leadership differ from traditional leadership?
JB: When I work with leaders, I ask three questions to see where they fall in the relational-traditional leadership spectrum.
Difference One: How Do You Work with People?
How you integrate your experience and expertise within the authority of your position and your organization’s hierarchy will distinguish you as either a traditional or relational leader. Traditional leaders place themselves at the centre of everything, believing they’ve earned the right to direct rather than dialogue. The classic tell of a traditional leader is someone who says, “We tried that before and it didn’t work”. Straight out of Maslow, traditional leaders wield the hammer that pounds creativity into the ground. They tend to lose patience and aren’t strong coaches.
Relational leaders focus on building deep relationships and trust. They gather multiple perspectives to understand an issue up, down, and sideways before they leap to a conclusion. That welcoming smile on their face tells their team to “bring it on and give me every angle”. Relational leaders masterfully gather multiple perspectives to light the way forward. These leaders are vulnerable and they’re never afraid to say, “I’m not sure what the best approach is here. What do you think?” These leaders will never ask team members to do work that they haven’t been trained, coached, and mentored to undertake.
Difference Two: How Do You Achieve Results?
Traditional leaders tend to be task masters focusing on outputs and efficiencies to measure performance and productivity. They ask a lot of short-cut questions — “What needs to get done?” “Who’s the best to do it?” and “What’s the shortest route to get there?”
Relational leaders take a step back and ask door-opening questions. They gain distance on challenges by emphasizing collaboration and rewarding adaptability and innovation. They discipline themselves to ask the right question at the right moment to make the right decision. And they’re not afraid to seek continuous improvement and learning within their organization.
Difference Three: How Do You Develop a Healthy and Caring Culture?
Because traditional leaders rely on hierarchy and authority, their approach to culture tends to be transactional — the give and the take, the trading of favours for power, swapping intel for access. Consciously and unconsciously, traditional leaders shape culture in their own image. They still hold to the carrot and stick principle; one that rewards employees who fit in and comply and punishes those who ask tough questions.
Relational leaders know that a healthy culture makes for good business. They enhance their culture by becoming great coaches. They happily relinquish control and focus more on helping people find their own solutions and develop their skills, providing support when needed.
The Compassion Advantage has been designed to supercharge a leader’s capabilities to become more relational while simultaneously amping up business savvy.
Shifting Focus: Traditional to Relational
SpSp: What would you first recommend to help a leader shift their mindset or focus from a traditional leadership lens to a relational one?
JB: The biggest shift a leader can make is to become more self-aware. Developing self-awareness means being comfortable in your own skin; recognizing your strengths, blind spots, and biases; having stores of humility; being open to feedback; acknowledging you can’t know everything; and striving for more than your own success.
To make that shift, leaders need to work with what I call “moments of truth”. I’ve developed a process to help leaders identify and unpack significant experiences in their life to determine how they will act differently in the future. Whether it’s through keynotes, workshops, or coaching, the most rewarding moment for me is when I create the conditions where the lightbulb goes off. Often, these moments aren’t the prettiest, but they are key to fulfilling both sides of the leadership equation: the side where we work on ourselves and the side where we work to develop others.
SpSp: What are some of the crucial skills needed to be a compassionate/relational leader? And how do you help leaders develop these skills?
JB: There are seven interlocking practices that leaders need to develop to become relational leaders. Each one builds on the other.
It beings with becoming more self-aware. With these new insights, we can then practice becoming more compassionate. It’s the compassionate leader that can then embrace the third practice which is to empower learning. Combined, these three practices form the foundation to build the fourth essential skill, to nurture culture. Along the way, they’ll need the fifth practice which is to better navigate complexity. It’s this that unlocks the sixth practice, becoming a disruptive innovator.
These six practices feed into the most vital work of being a relational leader — the seventh practice, which is to become a selfless leader. A leader who has a deep understanding of how to alter their behaviour and refine their practices to meet the moment as it comes.
I help leaders develop these practices by taking part in a variety of activities that allows them to reflect and level set. Over the last five years I’ve developed a wide range of exercises that are customized to an organization’s strategic needs. This can take the form of interactive keynotes, coaching, self-reflection, peer learning, leadership labs, retreats, strategic initiatives, or collaborative culture projects. My practice is rooted in the experiential, meeting organizations where they are. I’ve had groups tramp in the woods and tour the National Art Gallery — all in one day!
Leaders to Watch
SpSp: What leaders do you look up to and how does relational leadership or compassion contribute to their success?
The leaders I interviewed for The Compassion Advantage completely and totally inspired me. From Michael Hirsh’s harrowing moments near bankruptcy and the bold moves he made to save his company to Kunal Gupta’s confessions of how he pivoted from being externally focused to internally inspired.
Diane Brisebois’ stories of being a new leader in the tough world of retail shows us how relational leaders develop an uncanny sense to read a room and pause before they jump into action. These great leaders show us that relational leaders are always growing, always learning, always changing — and they are stronger because of individuals they coach and mentor, the teams they inspire, and the cultures they nurture. These leaders showed me that leadership is way to be, not a thing to do.
Jill Birch helps audiences master 21st century leadership skills, going beyond today’s jargon and stereotypes to show what’s really needed to innovate and compete in today’s marketplace. She has been a CEO and member of several c-suites and has facilitated leadership breakthroughs for Fortune 500 organizations around the world.
Drawing on this experience, Jill’s captivating and customized presentations help inspire change, build leadership capacity, and drive competitive advantage. Contact us to learn more and to book Jill for your next event.
