APNA
South Asian Heritage NHS Leaders Staff Network
Cultural Humility in
Compassionate Leadership in the NHS
Dr Anil Jain
Tista Chakravarty-Gannon
Cultural humility and compassionate leadership are deeply entwined together. Cultural humility means opening up a conversation to genuinely understand the identity of a person. It involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others.
Cultural Humility as described by Tervalon and Murray-Garcia in 1998 reaches beyond ‘Cultural Competence’ and involves a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique (Jain AK et al 2014). It is a dynamic process of lifelong learning and hence does not require the mastery of large compendium of beliefs and practices attributed to diverse group of people.
Compassion can be defined as a ‘sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to
alleviate or prevent it’ (Gilbert 2013). Compassionate leadership involves a focus on relationships through careful listening to, understanding, empathising with and supporting other people, enabling those we lead to feel valued, respected for and cared for, so they can reach their potential and do their best work ((Bailey and West, 2022). There is clear evidence that compassionate leadership results in more engaged and motivated staff with high levels of wellbeing which in turn results in high-quality care (West 2021).
