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Hello, I'm Michael West
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I'm Senior Visiting Fellow
in The King's Fund in London...
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...and Professor of Organisational
Psychology at Lancaster University.
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I want to describe what we mean by...
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..compassionate leadership
in social care across Wales.
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It means four behaviours -
attending to those we lead...
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..understanding
the challenges they face...
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..empathising with them
and then helping them.
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Attending means paying attention
to those we lead.
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Being present with them.
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Listening to them with fascination.
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And given the pressure
that social care staff are under...
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..then seeking to understand
the challenges they face.
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Not by imposing our understanding
from a hierarchical position afar.
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But through a dialogue, to arrive
at a shared understanding...
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..of the challenges
they face in their work.
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Third, it's having an empathic,
feeling, caring response.
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Feeling the pressure they're under,
feeling the anxieties.
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Feeling sometimes the sense
of inadequacy that staff may have.
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That gives us the motivation for
the fourth element of compassion...
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..which is helping,
or serving those we lead.
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That's achieved by helping
to remove the obstacles...
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..that get in the way of them
doing their work effectively...
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..and helping to find
the resources they need.
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The right numbers of staff
with the right skills...
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..the right equipment
and technologies, computing...
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..and the right training
and development...
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..to give them the skills they need
to do their jobs effectively.
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Those behaviours that constitute
compassionate leadership...
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Those behaviours that constitute
compassionate leadership...
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..are key to effective leadership...
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..and to team
and organisational effectiveness.
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This is not some soft-cushion
scented candles approach...
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..to leadership.
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On the contrary,
compassionate leadership...
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..requires a great deal
more courage and authenticity...
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..than the rather easy opt-out
of command and control leadership.
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Because our compassion
ultimately as leaders...
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..is for the people of Wales
that we serve.
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The communities we serve.
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That entails a very strong focus
on performance...
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..and performance management
in a compassionate way.
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Also, it's not some
easy consensus way forward.
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It's ensuring that
we are doing what's best...
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..in our social care settings...
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..to enable us to provide
high-quality care and support...
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..for the people and communities
we serve.
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So it's about ensuring
that leadership is effective...
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..by creating an inspiring
sense of vision or direction.
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That's a daily beacon
that guides our decision-making...
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..hour by hour and moment by moment.
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It ensures alignment
of people's efforts...
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..within our teams
and organisations...
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..by making sure
there are clear goals...
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..and that people are coordinating
their work effectively.
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And by creating a sense of
trust and commitment...
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..across our teams
and organisations.
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It's also about ensuring
inclusive leadership.
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If leadership is not inclusive,
it's not compassionate.
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So ensuring that everybody feels
included by our leadership...
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..regardless of their
professional background...
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..or gender or ethnicity
or nationality.
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Because inclusion and compassion...
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..are in a sense
two sides to the same coin.
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They are about blurring the
boundaries between self and other...
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..and creating a sense of connection
and safety and support.
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Compassionate leadership
is also about being collective...
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..and sharing power
and enabling all to feel...
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..they have leadership rights
and responsibilities.
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That means encouraging
shared leadership in teams.
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So we may have
a hierarchical team leader...
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..but their role is to bring
everybody's contribution...
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..and knowledge to bear
on delivering high-quality care...
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..for the people and the communities
we serve.
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Compassionate leadership...
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..is also about working
compassionately and helpfully...
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..across boundaries with
other teams and organisations...
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..and sectors we work with,
prioritising overall...
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..the delivery of high-quality care
for the communities we serve.
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And always asking the question of
other teams and organisations...
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.."How can we help you?"
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So compassionate leadership is core
to creating the cultures we need...
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..in transforming health
and social care across Wales...
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..for the coming years...
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..for the benefit of the people and
communities all across the country.
