Practising Compassionate Leadership and Building Spirals of Inspiration in Business and in Public Sector

Abstract

In this chapter, Hakanen and Pessi discuss servant leadership from the perspectives of compassion and compassionate leadership in organizations. The chapter introduces the core features of servant leadership and how in the roles of a leader and a servant, managers can demonstrate and practise compassion. In the chapter, three Finnish research and intervention projects both in private and public sectors focusing on compassion and servant leadership are introduced and their main lessons are discussed. Compassionate servant leadership is suggested to be one key driver for positive employee and organizational outcomes, such as well-being and engagement, commitment and job performance.