I firmly believe that the world would be a better place if we had more people practicing compassionate leadership.
Compassionate leadership is the discipline of leading with clarity, humanity, and courage at the same time.
I was first introduced to the ideas of compassion a couple of decades ago when I was undergoing hospital treatment, resulting from me doing what many passionate people do. Pushing hard, people pleasing and berating myself continually because nothing was ever good enough – and yes that did end up with me being hospitalised.
This is where I learned that compassion sits on four pillars:
Wisdom: This isn’t just about being smart, it is about seeing the bigger picture and making thoughtful decisions not just for yourself or the problem at hand.
Courage: Many times we do not act on the decision that there wisdom leads them to because they are afraid. Courage allows us to choose the harder thing when it is the right thing.
Strength: Once you have the courage to act do you have the inner strength to stand your ground and see a course of action through.
Kindness: How we act can make a world of difference, it can make the world of difference if hard decisions are enacted with kindness and awareness for others. If we don’t care for people and the planet then what are we even here for?
It wasn’t until years later that I figured out how this applied far beyond my own personal decisions and mindset and now I see this as a vital way of framing every decision in business.
Compassionate leadership approaches can be applied everywhere, but I think it has a particularly important place across the technology ecosystem, a sector that is moving so quickly and impacting the whole planet.
Technology and technology businesses have the capability to impact the world in ways that nothing else does. They can amplify benefits and it can amplify the devastation, with AI taking hold across all sectors and new technologies like quantum computing and nano-robotics on the horizon, the consequences could be like nothing we’ve ever imagined. The leadership of this technology cannot shirk the responsibility that it has. Unfortunately I don’t believe that compassionate leadership has been drummed into many of today’s most news-worthy leaders.
Technology led organisations are often built from cultures that do not hold up compassionate practices. Wisdom is replaced by intellectual superiority, strength by hierarchy, kindness by checkbox HR activities and courage by fear. This has been born from a combination of legacy culture, poor communication skills and ignorance about what it means to be a good leader. I have felt this strongly as a neurodivergent woman in science and technology, and even though things have changed over the years, I still hear contemporary stories that reflect my experiences one or two decades ago.
The leaders, founders, and ecosystem builders I respect most are the ones who know that performance and care are not opposites. In fact, the strongest teams and healthiest organisations are usually built by people who understand that people do their best work when they feel seen, trusted, and challenged in equal measure.
I have seen both sides of leadership. I have been in rooms where people were encouraged to speak honestly, bring their full perspective, and disagree without fear. I have also been in rooms where the loudest voice won, where certain people had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, and where the culture quietly trained people to self-edit. Those experiences have shaped how I think about leadership today.
When I talk about compassion, I am not talking about being agreeable or endlessly accommodating, people pleasing and toxic positivity are equally to blame for toxic cultures as aggressive controlling behaviours are. I am talking about building conditions where people can contribute well. That means listening properly. It means making room for different experiences. It means understanding that barriers are not always visible, but they are often real. In tech and innovation ecosystems, those barriers can show up in who gets funded, who gets introduced to the right people, whose ideas are believed, and who is assumed to be “credible” before they have even spoken.
The part people don’t often say out loud is the impact of all that on the individual, there is only so long that you can bang your head on glass walls, looking in, not understanding why you aren’t a part of the conversation. Over time your self-belief whittles away as you have had less opportunity to prove to yourself what you can do to yourself and to others.
The technology sector is also working at a pace which is hard to keep up with, this leaves people constantly feeling overwhelmed, in fight or flight. Running on adrenalin is not a great position to practice compassionate leadership from. Although it would be a perfect time to think about applying it to oneself. **
For me, this is why the answer begins with self-awareness. Leaders cannot support other people well if they have not done some of the work to understand their own triggers, blind spots, and habits under pressure. When things get tense, many leaders revert to what feels efficient. Sometimes that means becoming overly directive. Sometimes it means becoming distant. Sometimes it means confusing decisiveness with speed.
It helps a leader pause long enough to ask whether the decision in front of them is not just effective, but also fair. It helps them notice who is being left out of the conversation. It helps them recognise when a person needs support, when a team needs direction, and when a system itself needs to change.
That is why I think compassionate leadership is especially important for corporate leaders, founders, and ecosystem builders. These roles shape culture far beyond a single team or company. Corporate leaders set the tone for what is rewarded. Founders define the early norms that can either hardwire inclusion or exclusion into a business. Ecosystem builders influence who gets access, who gets visibility, and whose ideas are allowed to grow.
If those people lead with compassion, they help create environments where more people can succeed without having to conform to one narrow model of leadership or potential.
I also think compassionate leadership needs to be practical. It has to show up in everyday behaviour, not just in values statements or panel conversations. It looks like giving feedback in a way that is honest and usable. It looks like making decisions transparently. It looks like holding boundaries without humiliation. It looks like backing people publicly and correcting course privately when possible. It looks like creating space for disagreement without turning difference into division.
In innovation ecosystems, that matters because the stakes are bigger than one organisation. The way we lead shapes who stays in the room long enough to build. It shapes whether talented people feel energised or exhausted. It shapes whether ecosystems become places of genuine opportunity or places where only the most resilient can survive.
A compassionate approach does not mean lowering ambition. If anything, it raises it. It pushes us to aim for better outcomes and better cultures at the same time. It asks leaders to think beyond short-term optics and ask what they are building for the long term.
That is what I want more leaders to embrace. Not a version of leadership that is performative, polished, or emotionally detached. But one that is grounded, accountable, and humane.
Together, those qualities create a leadership style that is steady enough for uncertainty and human enough for real life.
That is what I try to bring to my work, whether I am supporting founders, contributing to an ecosystem, or thinking about the kind of cultures we normalise in tech and beyond. I believe we need leaders who can move with both conviction and care. Leaders who understand that people are not obstacles to progress. They are the reason progress matters.
If we want better businesses, stronger ecosystems, and more resilient innovation, compassionate leadership cannot be treated as a nice extra. It has to be part of the core design.
Written by
Dr Becky Sage
Entrepreneur in Residence, Leadership Facilitator, and Tech Ethics Advocate. Founder of Interactive Scientific, former Director of EDUCATE Ventures, host of Founded & Grounded.