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If you went to some hard-charging executive talking about “compassionate love” within his workplace, he’d likely have a knife to your throat in about 32 seconds or less. But you know, this concept might actually have something to it.
First: We do have some research that “compassionate workplaces” (which is admittedly hard to quantify) have more profitability.
Second: We’ve got some context and research that more empathetic companies drive higher revenue growth.
Third is kind of a leap, but think about it for a second. Calling someplace like Wall Street “compassionate love” might be a bit much, but stop and consider what “compassionate love” is. It’s not sex. You’re basically discussing brotherly love. Now, in a culture like Wall Street, it’s ruthless and guys undercut each other all the time. But those same guys go out for drinks and have a fratty, bro-y, prankster culture among them. While they might slice each other’s throats for bonuses, yes, it’s still a vague form of compassionate love.
Hit this once before around the “boys don’t cry” problem of work. Us men cannot have babies, and that + a host of other reasons means we derive a lot of self-worth from what we “build” at work. But men are (generally) less emotive. So as men come to run companies, what does empathy and emotion look like? Often…
