Compassionate leadership training for managers and leaders

Compassionate leadership is linked with improved learning and innovation, and reduced staff stress, injuries and absenteeism, and even reduced patient mortality. 

Why compassion?

At the heart of compassion is the notion that everyone experiences difficulty, and that we can all play a role in alleviating our own difficulties and those of others. Whether this is compassion for ourselves or the people we lead, colleagues or service users. We won’t always feel like helping and will sometimes be tired or overwhelmed or unable to connect.

Although it helps to have positive feelings, we do not have to feel compassion to be compassionate. We can recognise our physical and mental state, resource ourselves as best we can, and respond from our firm compassionate intention, rather than from impulse or intense emotion. 

How does compassion improve care?

How does this translate into compassion in health, social care and other organisations? How might we think about compassionate leadership, working with colleagues, service users and their friends and families? Research by Prof Michael West shows how compassionate leadership is linked with improved learning and innovation, and reduced staff stress, injuries and absenteeism, and even reduced patient mortality. In short, compassion is essential to high quality healthcare.

Dr Robert Marx and Professor Clara Strauss have designed a training programme of six weekly sessions, lasting 1.5 hours. 

Who is the course for?

The course is for anyone in a leadership or management role in a health and social care organisation and will combine experiential practice and reflection, as well as home practice to help cultivate compassion for ourselves and the people we lead.

What’s in the course programme?

If you want to learn more download this programme outline (pdf).

Next course

The next course will be advertised below. To make sure you hear about the dates for the next course, either:

• sign up for our newsletter, or
• drop a line to smc@spft.nhs.uk to register your interest.

Limited free spaces

The cost of the six-week course is £200 per person.

We are also offering up to eight free spaces for Sussex Partnership staff, on a first come first served basis.

Please note, we ask all those who book a place on this training programme to fill in an application form that will be sent to the facilitators.