Season 6 Episode 9
How Can You Become a Compassionate Leader–and Still Get the Work Done?
March 28, 2026
Monica Worline, PhD, faculty director of the Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) at the Ross School of Business is interviewed by Sarah Kurtz McKinnon (MBA '18), a senior associate director at CPO, about her research around compassion in organizational contexts. What exactly is compassion? How do you approach someone that might be suffering? How can you be a compassionate leader but not get taken advantage of?
Competencies
Episode Resources
Reflection Questions:
- How does the assumption that there is 'always suffering in the room' change how you might approach a leadership role?
- What is a small practice you can initiate that will help you better notice when someone in your organization needs compassion?
- How can you create a psychologically safe environment as a leader so people are comfortable sharing their authentic selves and their unique needs?
Monica Worline
Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations
Monica Worline is the Faculty Director of the Center for Positive
Organizations and a faculty member in the Organizations and Management
group at Michigan Ross. As a member of the Positive Organizational
Scholarship (POS) community for over two decades, Monica has dedicated
her research, writing, and teaching to understanding how we can cultivate
more courageous thinking, compassionate leadership, and forms of
organizing that bring people’s best work to life. Monica received her
doctorate in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan.
Sarah Kurtz McKinnon
Senior Associate Director of Engaged Learning and Innovation
Sarah Kurtz McKinnon is the Senior Associate Director of Engaged
Learning and Innovation at the Center for Positive Organizations at
Michigan Ross. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University and earned her MBA at Ross. At Ross, she
co-authored a case study about staff motivation and reward with Dr. Wayne
Baker, which was awarded the #1 case of the year by the Aspen Institute
Business and Society Program and published by the Harvard Business
Review.