The courage to care

Compassionate Leadership Training

In short

Leadership development for people who are responsible for others. Skills are part of it, but most of the work is personal: how you show up when things get difficult.

For leaders and leadership teams
In person, worldwide
Clients include KPMG, BBVA and Oxfam

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An open heart and a strong back

For years we taught communication skills. Then we noticed that when the going gets tough, skills are the first thing to go. What a team looks for in that moment is its leader: present, honest, and willing to face what is happening, with compassion.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.Ian Maclaren

Leading with compassion starts with gentleness: warmth, patience, and attention for the people you lead. On that ground we build what we call fierce compassion, the ability to confront what needs confronting and still care for the person. Leaders practise the conversations they have been avoiding and learn to admit mistakes in front of their team. Most of them find that their authority grows when they do.

In the room

A leadership group at work

Imre Végh working with a group of leaders during a training day — Working with a leadership group.

Participants in a full hall holding up cards during a leadership training — A full hall. Everyone answers with a card, in the open.

The programme

What the training covers

Each programme is put together for the group. Most include these six themes.

01PresenceLeading as who you are, including the parts you would rather hide.
02Gentle and fierce compassionWhen to support and when to challenge, and how to do both without losing yourself.
03Psychological safetyA team where people speak up, admit mistakes and try new things. Also available as a separate training.
04Difficult conversationsFeedback, boundaries and conflict, based on Nonviolent Communication.
05Self-compassionHow you treat yourself under pressure sets the tone for how you treat your team. The inner critic, the empathy that wears you out, and Kristin Neff's fierce self-compassion.
06Your own patternsWhere you get stuck under pressure, and what changes when you look at it.

9.3average rating /10

5,000+people trained worldwide

20years experience

How we work

We work with exercises, reflection and cases from your own organisation. A programme can be one or two training days, but we prefer a trajectory over several months, because most of the change happens between sessions. We have worked in Houston, Madrid, Strasbourg, Porto, Ghana, Uganda, Laos and Vietnam, for KPMG, BBVA, Oxfam, AkzoNobel, NN Group, Doctors Without Borders and the International Space University, among others.

Psychological safety training, for the team around the leader.
Team coaching, when a team is stuck.
What is compassionate leadership? The thinking behind the work.

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals.Pema Chödrön

What participants say

Thank you so much for making this course a reality. It exceeded my expectations. I believe this is a milestone in each participant's life.

★★★★★

Getting feedback from the group on the two occasions was an incredible experience. There aren't many occasions in my life to receive this, it's a gift.