One Highlight from Wisdom 2.0

February 23, 2013

By: Monica Worline, Jane Dutton


Originally posted on Compassion at Work Blog

Wisdom 2.0 is the name given to a gathering this weekend of people interested in the intersection of new technologies and old wisdom traditions. Many speakers highlighted aspects of mindfulness and emphasized the importance of compassion as one of the taproots of humanity. One highlight of the conference for those of us interested in the expression of compassion at work was an onstage interview with Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, who spoke extensively about his perspective on compassion and leadership. Jeff wrote a LinkedIn post recently, entitled Managing Compassionately, in which he describes some of the development of his perspective on compassion and leadership. Jeff emphasized the power of empathy plus action to counteract our typical expectation that others will do things in the same way we would do them, and discussed the need for coaching and deep engagement to overtake tactics and problem solving when a leader truly commits to leading with compassion.