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The word compassion holds many meanings, and it’s hard to define. Here’s what we know. Compassion consists of three main elements: recognizing or noticing when others are struggling, understanding and feeling for the person that is struggling, and responding or having the motivation to act and help relieve the struggle. Compassion takes empathy one step further with that final element: having the motivation to act.

You might be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with leadership? I can’t fix every person’s problems.” Our answer: It has everything to do with it. Human beings are born with a compassionate instinct at our core. In fact, research by David Rand at Harvard University shows that with both adults and children, our first impulse is to help others, not to compete with them.

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