Corporate barons call for immediate action for compassionate approach towards employees

New Delhi ,

In a survey of leaders of major global organizations by Rasmus Hougaard, MD , Project potential,  91% said compassion is very important for leadership and 80% would like to enhance their compassion but do not know how!

Realizing the need to study this particular phenomenon and in order to find out common solution, MDI Gurgaon in association with Tibet House invited business leaders and management fraternity to come together and deliberate on  a framework and measures for compassion based management of resources on “Compassionate Corporations: Business Leaders’ Dialogue” on 11 September 2018.  In line with the vision of MDI Gurgaon, to be a school for ‘Thought Leaders and Change Masters’, this thought leadership intiative  was an attempt to start a dialogue between industry and academia on building a shared understanding of framework for compassion at the workplace.

As HH Dalai Lama says, if you want to be happy, practice compassion; if you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
Compassion is relational by nature and thus embodied through interpersonal connections with other human beings. Being compassionate at the work place may mean seeing our work not only as a ‘job’, but as a calling to help and serve others, or looking at how our work impacts those around us. Leaders’ persuasion and inspiration involving appropriate emotional elements such as compassion turn out to be more effective than a rational approach towards managing her/ his employees. It has been seen that Corporate are not only giving immense attention towards this problem of but are also revising and formulating HR Policies in a tailored manner to manage stress and discomfort level of the working force but current intervention for employee happiness are not adequate and a more compassionate approach is the need of the hour.. The esteemed gathering was welcomed by Dr. Himadri Das, Director MDI Gurgaon.

Prof. Tanuja Sharma, Event Convener, MDI Gurgaon elucidated “the alarming numbers of depressions, increasing percentage of stress related bad health cases and increasing percentage of suicide cases provoked us to bring together like minded people to deliberate upon this topic and to come up with an effective resolution”.

Padma Bhushan Mr. Muthuraman, Ex Vice Chairman, Tata Steel, said ‘Corporations won’t be compassionate unless it is bringing in profitability and sustainability. The main issues are the forces which go against compassion. We should know what to communicate and how to link it up with pillars of benefits and success”. Speaking on the occasion Ven. Geshe Dorji Damdul, Director, Tibet House said. “We need to bring compassion as a universal code into the education system. Since early days one should begin taking care of not only mind but also of heart. The agenda is to grow and not suffer”.

In this time of environmental crisis and social schisms, it is time that businesses take cognizance of compassion at workplace not only in terms of formulating processes and practices to enhance it, but also in changing the mindset which impacts  dealings/transactions. Organizations should focus on creating a leadership model that promotes care and kindness to employees aiming on releasing stress for higher productivity.

The dialogue was moderated by Mr. G. Ravindran, Chair Professor, TISS-Leadership.next, The event was a collaborative effort and was conceptualized and organized by a group of faculty and students of MDI, Gurgaon and two external members, Mr. G. Ravindran, Chair Professor, TISS-Leadership.next, and Dr Sunita Chugh, founder, ‘On Last mile’.