What is Career Self-Compassion?

Essentially this is the ability to be understanding towards ourselves when we face failure, challenges, or make mistakes. This is particularly important on your career journey because nobody will look after you like yourself, so give yourself a break.

Benefits of self-compassion in the workplace….

• If you keep getting knocked down but have the self-compassion to help build yourself up again this will lead to a newfound resilience as you climb obstacles on your career journey.

• Self-compassion promotes high levels of confidence among individuals which in turn creates strong employees who are not afraid to be innovative and trust their own ideas.

• It also increases motivation as the ability to acknowledge when things have not worked out as planned, coupled with self-compassion that it’s ok to make mistakes, motivates individuals to try again, to try harder, and to try something different.

• Promotes a growth mindset. This is key to a successful career, being able to change and adapt to new situations and using feedback constructively alters the mindset of the individual.

How you can promote self-compassion as a leader

• Lead by example. When you fail or make mistakes don’t be afraid to dust yourself off and acknowledge your loss, to get up and start again. This shows employees that even the boss makes mistakes and can use them constructively to try new solutions.
• The power of mindfulness. Use Pause for 60 seconds in the workplace to get employees to actively reflect upon difficult situations and what they can do to improve and move forward. This type of mindset encourages staff to become in control of their future outcomes.