The Compassionate Leader is one of the books that form my “The Compassionate Trilogy” series. The other two books are The Compassionate Listener and Building Compassionate Communities. My exploration of compassionate listening, communities, and leadership has led me to a growing awareness of the need for individuals to belong and the importance of being part of healthy communities especially in our current dysfunctional culture. This awareness has led me to attempt to define and describe the importance of compassion in our interactions with others and the need to build compassionate communities. But this does not just happen without the right kind of leadership.

I wrote The Compassionate Leader “to help leaders create caring relationships and communities for followers to experience value, belonging, celebration, and accomplishments.” Becoming a Compassionate Leader involves the development of four primary characteristics:

• Humility • Respect

• Serving • Empowering

This book will attempt to define and describe what Compassionate Leadership looks like by reviewing theoretical and research findings leading to practical suggestions to help the reader become aware of and practice the behavior of a Compassionate Leader.

PART 1: Introduction to Leadership Theory will briefly describe twelve primary leadership theories, leadership and management, followership, the Leadership Emergence Theory (LET), and components of effective leadership.

PART 2: Characteristics of Compassionate Leadership will explore four fundamental qualities that are necessary for becoming an effective Compassionate Leader.

PART 3: Application of Compassionate Leadership will explore how to become a Compassionate Leader and some practical steps for motivating, training, and empowering others to become more compassionate individually while helping build compassionate communities.