“Connect with empathy?” “Lead with compassion?” But I need tasks done!

Saw that headline above on Harvard Business Review this morning. Only started to read the article a bit, then gagged, then urinated myself laughing. How many leaders are capable of doing these two things? Maybe 10 percent as a ceiling? “Lead with compassion?” Leaders by and large don’t give a shit about that. They have boxes to check and tasks they need done, and their focus — if they even have a focus — is on managing up, not managing the peons and worrying about said peons’ empathy, belonging, and compassion. Here’s the simplest litmus test I can provide you: if executives cared about these things, why would decks about “belonging” at work belong to HR? The only things that belong to HR are things no one cares about, i.e. onboarding — “I need Tom to hit the ground running, no time to get him up to speed on how we work!” — or “people stuff.” Leaders, or at least men who advance in companies, care about widgets, processes, and money — in reverse order. They don’t care about stuff like empathy and compassion; those are fluffy things to them. Maybe they cried when their dad passed away, but that’s about it. A guy who cares about empathy and compassion won’t get far enough in most organizations to make any sort of a difference, and henceforth cultures are not shaped by these words.

Yes/no?